A well-appointed contemporary-styled house on a canal in L.O..

Time to jazz-up the front entry a little bit.

And let just a little bit more light into the entryway without sacrificing any privacy.

Our clients kitchen cupboard doors had already been outfitted with some of the latest obscure glass on the market at that time, which they wanted us to match for the new door & sidelight.

We were able to track the exact product down on-line by comparing our digital photos with samples shown on the Benheim Architectural Glass web-site, which we found by typing the words OBSCURE GLASS into a search engine. Eventually we found www.bendheimarchitectural.com. As you can see, they sent us samples, which we took to the job-site to confirm the match. Our local glass supplier was then able to purchase the specialty obscure glass from Bendheim and use it to manufacature the insulated units we specified, and which we glazed into the new Simpson wood door & the original sidelight jamb assembly.

Both the new door & the new insulated glass unit for the direct-glazed sidelight were installed into the original jambs. No disturbing the interior or exterior trim, siding or drywall paint-lines.

The finished product. We call this type of installation MINIMAL INVASIVE SURGERY. In and out the same day. Check out the cool door pulls our client picked out for us to install on the interior & exterior.

A Beaverton Ranch. Hopefully, those who peruse our portfolio here, understand why we highlight some of our most high profile projects.

But we work for folks of all income brackets and are competitive against anyone else who is worth their salt. Exterior Before Shot.

Exterior After Shot. A 6-Panel Fiberglass with an improved weatherstripping system.

Interior Before Shot. The wagon-wheel & the amber-glass are a bit dated & they’re both single-pane.

Nothing fancy smancy. Just clean & thermally improved.

Time for this Lake Oswego Circa 80’s Home to get a front door face-lift. Note the substantial overhang at the center over the main entry.

This is always an important factor when considering “WOOD” doors.

Once again, our client wanted everything prefinished, so we presized the doors, sidelights and other components and had everything prefinished by Spray-Kote.

One of the advantages of having it done this way is that ALL the edges of the jambs and sidelights are coated and sealed, as opposed to when door assemblies are finished “after” being prehung.

Tim, one of our technicians mortises for the hinges.

The jamb & sidelight assembly are assembled & set in place.

An applied astragal is fabricated and installed onto the inactive door panel with silicone weather-stripping.

An interior BEFORE shot.

An interior AFTER shot.

The finished product.
Those are Simpson Cortez II Oak Doors with matching Sidelights. (www.simpsondoor.com)

A unique house in Tualatin.

Relatively unique doors.

But time for a face-lift.

This is a door made by a company called IWP or International Wood Products. This company was purchased by Jeld-Wen.

So these are Jeld-Wen Doors. I’m fond of circles in door and window designs for some reason, so I like these doors.

Installed Baldwin Mortise-Case Locks with matching Dummy-Hardware in an Oil Rubbed Bronze Finish.

As is our frequent practice, we recommended that they allow us to install an anodized-bronze aluminum interlocking threshold with a brass weatherstripping hook on the bottom of the doors.
This threshold system not only allows the doors to open and close without feeling like the doors are dragging across the top of the threshold…

…but it also allows for what we call “positive-contact” when you close the doors. The weatherstripping hook on the bottom of the doors interlock and STOP up against the interior edge of the threshold. This is particularly important on double-entry doors wherein you are already dealing with one door shutting and locking into another door which carries with it a certain amount of inherent movement & flexing.

Add to that, a door-bottom weatherstripping system that doesn’t really engage anything, and it can make for a very sloppy couple of doors that move and jiggle even after they’ve been closed and locked. Add to that, the compression (foam-filled) weatherstripping that they use now days for the top & sides, and it can all make for a very spongy-feeling set of doors. So much so that they’ve been known to inadvertently set-off alarm systems when the wind blows.

If you look to the left of the door opening, you should be able to make out the original front door leaning up against the exterior wall. See the mail-slot in it? This project was the result of a break-in. You can probably understand how being in the door installation business has placed us on the heels of many a burglary. We could maybe write a book about doors and burglaries and the things clients have told us that the police have told them. One thing we hear fairly frequently is that if someone wants to get in bad enough, there’s no stopping them.

But the good news is that while someone could drive their car through your wall if they wanted to get in bad enough, there aren’t that many burglars willing to try something like that. The point being that there is some merit to making it as difficult as reasonably possible for someone to get into your house because; 1. The cost of a new door is nothing compared to having certain personal belongings stolen. 2. I’ve seen many damaged doors where the burglar gave up and left because it was too difficult and they were having to make too much noise to get in.

This was actually our very first project ever!!! Our first job. And yes…it was a burglary! We have a copy of this client’s check framed and hanging on a wall in our office as is the tradition for a business celebrating and displaying the first dollar they ever made. The check is dated February 6th, 1989.

So sad to profit off the misfortune of others. It really is. It’s hard to celebrate the benefit your business receives when it’s gained at the unfortunate loss of others. When the origin involves crime or tragedy.
We’ve no profound words to offer beyond that.

As with both of these projects, we were able to replace the damaged doors with replica doors because both door models were still offered by mainstream manufacturers. We can always have custom versions of a discontinued door model manufactured locally, although insurance companies will sometimes (frequently) balk at the prospect of paying the premium expense. if asked, we can sometimes help serve as an intermediary with insurance companies.

We are hesitant to say that burglaries in Portland are a serious problem, but they are. Whether it’s a broken window or a broken door, we become involved in a goodly amount of them. So like the police, we know a thing or two about the subject. We could perhaps write a book on burglaries as it relates to how they gain entry and what victims and the local constabularies have to say and report upon the subject. But given the depressing nature of the subject, we wouldn’t likely sell many books. So as of this point in time, there are no book signing dates scheduled.

Simple contemporary elegance from the 1960’s up in the Sylvan area.

Time for a front entry upgrade for the newest home owners.

Not certain what the thinking was behind this original design here on these doors, but it’s certainly unique.

Simple Flush veneer doors with what we call applied trim-pieces on the exterior.

The garage door had already been recently outfitted with a beautiful horizontal cedar plank version.

Our client’s wanted their new front doors to follow this look.

So we had B.J. Door manufacturing build us two Stave-Core 1 3/8″ thick Birch Veneer doors…

…upon which we affixed some cedar planks milled down to a 3/8″ thickness to make 1 3/4″ thick doors.

The locks our client’s picked out.

Plenty of nearby natural light and the modern staircase all combine to make this a pretty hip entryway. Don’t forget that you can click on the photo to enlarge it for a slightly better view.

The door our client picked out for replacing the door assembly shown above, was from the Simpson Empress 4300 series of doors.

Go to www.simspondoor.com.
Although we’re not certain that the exact etched-glass insert is any longer available, there are many other options.

The original door.

Just a flush veneer entry door with a storm door. Our client wanted to have an idea of what the new door might look like before proceeding with the project…

…so with the help of a little Corel Photo Paint, we sort of made the storm door go away, and inserted a door she described, along with a very rough idea of what some exterior trim she described might look like. Hey, I said it was rough.

Our client wanted to spice up the exterior of the door assembly with a little ginger-bread trim.

The challenge was contending with the aluminum siding. One doesn’t generally want to start tearing aluminum siding apart, unless you have to do so. And given the great overhang which this door opening enjoyed, we didn’t have to. As you can see, we just laid the trim over the top of the siding.

The door our client settled upon was a variation of the Simpson model 1660, but with a single-fluted panel below.

A little stain and a little paint, and the curb appeal of this house in Vancouver just went up a notch or two.

A modest Southwest Portland Home.

Time for a first impression face lift.

A little more light in an otherwise relatively dark entry way will make for a welcome improvement.

The Simpson 7598 Bellaire. One of my personal favorites.

They opted for a Mortise-Case Lock.

A much more inviting entryway.