How to Make a Doorway!

Enough feeling sorry for myself. We are rockstars (thanks Haley!). We are doing fabulous things to this house and it is definitely going to pay off in the end. Lemme show you how ridiculously gungho we are.

First, decide where you want the door. Then go nuts on it.



Do be sure to measure and check your level. After my initial contribution, I went back to painting and let Steph and Trent take over.



With a strategically placed garbage can outside a window, they made quick work of clearing out the first side. Note Trent's hand poking through on the bottom left corner.



There was lots of consulting "The Book," a massive how to do everything yourself book my Dad gave us for Christmas that has been incredibly useful.



Soon, they were down to just the studs. Trent built a brace with 2x4's and jacks to ensure the house wouldn't come tumbling town when the studs were cut.



Moment of truth, cutting the first stud. It was fine! Hooray!



One stud cut, one to go!



I emerged from painting and pretty much just made panicked noises as they cut the final stud. Surely helpful, no?



Steph and Trent were much more productive, double checking everything and testing the load bearing of the final stud. Then we all took a deep breath and...



Huzzah, nothing came tumbling down. We quickly put up Trent's big support beam and with elegant coordination, Steph and I put up the new side jackposts. Even after we removed the brace everything looked great. We have to get it inspected, since we are trying to do everything to code. But after that we are going to slap some sheetrock on it, frame it, and paint it. It will be fantastic!