Tag Archives: bedroom door

Wednesday 18th March 2015 – WE NOW HAVE …

bedroom door lock handles keys les guis virlet puy de dome france… door handles, a door latch and even locks and kets on our door now.

And not only that, the bottom has been trimmed so that it opens and closes correcclty, and the battens have been fitted to the door frame to prevent the door from going through the frame.

Fitting the lock took longer than I thought that it would, but then again, if you want anything doing, you may as well do it correctly. And it was done so “correctly” too that the 5mm pilot drill that I used to drill through the door to site the hole in the latch where the handle will fit, that went right through without touching the sides and for the keyholes, I was about 2mm out of position.

Even the through-bolts for the door plates, the upper one was spot-on and the lower one was 2mm out too.

You can’t get much better than all of that.

The question of battens was not so simple though. The distance between the doorplate and the frame is only 20mm so using a 27mm lath was clearly out of the question. One alternative was to trim off a length from an 18mm pine plank, but rummaging around in the barn I found a 4m length of 18×40 lath left over from when I built the verandah, and that did the business perfecrly. A run-over with the belt sander cleaned that up really nicely.

And while I was rummaging around in the barn, I found something that I knew that I had and which I didn’t have a clue where I had put them – half a dozen 60cm pine planks. Propped up against the central beam in the barn, hidden behing two chipboard and one OSB boards about which I had also forgotten.

I’ve made a start on emptying out the bedroom now. That’s not going to be quite so easy as I have nowhere to put anything. I think that maybe half a day in the barn emptying out a space where I can put the wood offcuts, the electrical conduit and the insulation – that will make a huge amount of space.

But my door does look nice and I’m really happy with that.

Tuesday 17th March 2015 – THIS IS PROGRESS

hanging door bedroom les guis virlet puy de dome franceHere we have a door, now hanging nicely in the doorframe of the bedroom.

This morning I removed all of the masking tape and then wired up all of the electrical sockets in the bedroom (and that was something that took much longer than I anticipated too).

No bread at lunchtime, so I went into Pionsat to see the boulangère but it seems that they are exceptionally closed for the week. So that was that – I ended up having to go to the Intermarché.

And so after lunch, I attacked the door. I had to cut off about 20mm off one side to make it fit, and then I cut the lets in for the hinges. Much to my surprise, the door fotted perfectly for most of its length and width, but it was catching in places where the frame on the wall seems to be bowed.

And that was where the new belt sander fitted in. It earned its keep here, that’s for sure, sanding off where the door was tight. And in position too – it’s not that easy taking he door off, lying it flat on a surface, marking it off and then cutting off the excess. The belt sander did it in seconds.

fitting lock in bedroom door les guis virlet puy de dome franceI still had enough time to start on fitting the door lock. That’s 10mm wide and 60mm deep and so with the aid of an auger, I drilled into the door jamb as necessary. Tomorrow, I’l chisel it out to fit the lock and then drill through for the handle and key.

I’ll also fit the lock plate on the door frame, and then fit the battens to stop the door pushing through.

When that’s done, I can start to empty the room ready to do the flooring.

Wednesday 28th January 2015 – THIS LANDING DEFINITELY …

… won’t be finished by the weekend now, that’s for sure.

I didn’t realise this at the time, but now I do, that the “drop-in” hinges that are quite common here and that I like to use are “handed”. I need three right-handed ones for the bedroom door and three right-handed ones for the shower room door, but I seem to have acquired six left-handed hinges.

I can’t believe this, because I’ve fitted three doors here, some right-handed and some left-handed, and I’ve always managed to find the xorrect hinges without even knowing about it. Talk about beginners’ luck. But now I’ll have to wait until I can go either to Montlucon or Commentry.

This morning though, I fitted the ceiling in the landing and cut out the hole for the recessed light that I’ll be fitting. All of this took a while but it’s finished now and doesn’t look too bad at all.

We had a flash of sunlight too for half an hour, so I sanded down and vacuumed the shelves over the stairs, and then put the first coat of varnish on them and also on the landing celling. That all took me until 14:20 – a good 20 minutes after my normal lunchtime pause,but I’m less interested in pausing than I am in doing the work on the place.

After lunch I went into the barn to find the doors for the bedroom and the shower room and then cut down one of the planks that I’ll be using for an end-piece for the stud wall. And it was here that I discovered the issue with the hinges.

Never mind though, there’s still plenty to do. I ended up finishing off the routing for the wiring on the first floor (although I’ve since remembered two things that I’ve missed) and then put the second coat of varnish on the shelves and ceiling.

Tomorrow I have to nip to Marcillat and record the Radio Tartasse radio sessions, and when I come back I’ll be putting the third coat of varnish on the shelves and fitting the recessed light on the landing.

And until I can sort out some hinges for the doors, I’ll be fitting as many end pieces as I can and then starting on the bedroom. No reason to stop working just because I’ve messed up these hinges.