The new front door

After the giant fail of trying to refinish the original door of The Bennett House, I kind of got set on having a wood front door.

Unfortunately, when I looked into the cost of wood exterior doors, I was a bit floored!  Especially since we decided to widen the opening to line up better with the 2nd floor balcony door above it.

I then looked into second hand old doors, but they needed too much work and a lot of customization to fit our opening so I decided to try and find a cheaper, custom manufacturer.

I did find one.  Through Kijiji of all places!

I have to admit, the whole set-up did not fill me with confidence, but I decided to take the risk and go for it anyway.  If it worked out, I would be saving thousands of dollars!

So they took our measurements, and then sent them off to China where our door, side lights and transom got custom made.  

Eight weeks later, it arrived in pieces at a warehouse in Markham. I managed to drive it home in our mini-van, but was completely packed and the suspension was pretty low.  This is a seriously heavy door!

I wasn't quite sure what the quality would be like since we paid about a quarter the cost of local door manufacturers, but when we opened it up, it looked pretty good!

Looked alright, yes, but didn't fit! 

And not just in one direction.  None of the parts fit together properly.  Some were too big and some were too small.

Our guys spent 2 days working on the door-- cutting and sanding and re-fitting it.

But they got it looking like this!

Pretty fantastic, I think!

I picked up a nice door set from Rona that looked hand forged and slightly beaten up-- just my style.  

But when I went over to see it installed, this was what I saw.

Notice anything weird about the interior handle?  

Honestly!

Anyway, it's all fixed up now-- lever pointing in the right direction.

I think it looks gorgeous!  

A heavy, black-stained, solid mahogany door for a fraction of the cost!

As long as you have a good carpenter ;-)