Remodeling Is Expensive: Part 3 - the basement storage room doors

In this series of posts, I am attempting to show that remodeling is always more expensive than we think it will be.

No one wants to see this mess from their family room!

Our basement includes a huge storm shelter.  It has four concrete walls, a concrete floor, and a concrete ceiling that doubles as the stoop/slab on our front porch.  It runs the length of the house, so it is huge!  A framed wall separates it into 2 rooms.  While we are not seeking refuge from a tornado,  these two rooms store our camping supplies, hunting supplies, a boxed Christmas tree, and pretty much everything else.  The door of one room enters into our basement family room.  The other door enters into the kids' play room.  And in the winter, the uninsulated storm shelter pours cold air into the adjoining rooms.  The doors also show the unsightly mess in the storage rooms.

To help insulate the rooms, and to hide the mess in the rooms, I decided to install two doors.  How hard can it be right?  and how expensive can it be?  A couple of doors and we are done, right?  (Wrong!  Remember how we tend the grossly underestimate the expenses involved in remodeling projects?)

Last fall I discovered ReStore, a building materials donation and resale store operated by KC's Habitat For Humanity.  Check them out here.  I found two matching doors that were the right size for the doorways.  They were used and I couldn't beat the price- $10 each!  What a great deal!  I could put doors on the storage rooms for like $20!

New door for the family room!

For this project, I made the mistake of not putting my list of materials on paper.  I just kind of bought 2 doors and dove in!  (It's too late now, right?  These doors are non-refundable!)

I returned to ReStore one week later for 2 door strikers and 6 hinges.  Total cost: $6.50.

The doorways were rough-trimmed with 1 X 6 pine boards.  I needed more wood to make door jambs, as well as door casement trim.  One trip to Lowes:  $36

Oh yeah- door knobs.  As it turns out, the extra knobs I thought I had did not match at all any of the other knobs in the house.  So I bought 2 sets of round, polished brass knobs.  And weatherstripping the doors will do no good if there is a gap at the bottom creating drafts.  2 door sweeps needed. A trip to Home Depot:  $29

Oops.  I need more weatherstripping.  Yet another trip to Lowes: $6

In the end, a project that started with two $10 doors turned into a $78 project.  I know, that is not a lot of money.  But it will still take a long time to re-coup that in energy savings.  However, the doors look a lot nicer than the quilt that hung in that doorway!

New door for the playroom!

Lesson learned- projects never cost $20!  Sit down, think it through, and put it all on paper.

Apparently, underestimating the cost of a project is not something new.  Even Jesus talked about it.  Check it out:   

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  (Luke 14:28-30)

Going Crazy With Doors

I need two doors for this project.  An entry door to the bathroom, and a door to the closet that also serves as under-the-stairway storage.  Both are rough-trimmed for 36 inches.  So, I have been searching for a couple of free doors.

Early into this project, I found an almost-new door listed in a small town that was, well, a long ways away.  I drove there, but to no avail- she forgot to set it out before leaving for work.  I eventually received the door, though. You can read about it in the Sometimes You Hit Gold...Sometimes You Hit Your Finger post. It was 36 inches wide, and almost new, but it was a six panel door and the other doors in our house are stained, slab doors.

A few days later I found 3 doors at another giveaway.  They were stained brown, and also 36" wide!  (see the same post for this story)

I realized, though, that to hang the doors, I would need all the hardware, including knobs, latches, strikers, and hinges.  I would also need door jambs, or enough lumber to make them.  Finally, I would need casing trim!  And I wasn't finding much casing trim. 

But guess what popped up on Craigslist the other day?  2 stained slab doors, pre-hung, including the trim!  The door knobs are even polished brass, round handles, which means they will match every other interior door knob in the house! 

Unfortunately, they are only 32 inches wide.  So now I have a dilemma.  Do I use the smaller doors, or do I use the jambs, casing and hardware from the smaller doors, along with a couple of extra pieces of casing I did find somewhere, and make it all work?  (Hey, with wood filler and stain/paint, I can make it look nice and you would never notice!)  Decisions.....Decisions....

So until I decide, I guess I will have six doors sitting in my basement.  Oh yeah- the white six panel door?  I have it listed on Craigslist and a rehabber is interested.  I guess I will put that money towards some tile backer board.