New Doors for a Beautiful Home

Back in September I wrote 2 blogs (Sept 9th and the 24th ~ see below) about some custom doors for a home being built on the Redwood Coast.  Well the building is closed in now and we're building the exterior doors.  They will have 3 different designs.  Two simpler doors on the lower floor will have a nice design with a 4 lite top half.  The Great Room doors will have a bit more of a "flowing" design with arched top panels and 9 lites of Seedy Reamy insulated glass.  The grand entry will have another elegant door with arched top panels, nine lites, a dentil shelf, and beveled glue chip glass.  The entry will also have two sidelights and an arched transom with a strained glass Coastal scene by Zoleta Lee Designs.  Below are some progress pictures of the house.  Work on it has been stopped for the winter but work has been ongoing with the doors.  More to come soon!

 

 

 

 

Walking around the property, looking at all the preparations, walking through the rough framed home, and imagining just where the doors will hang for decades to come........ pretty cool.  Years of planning, earth moving, layout, milling logs, drying that lumber, and starting construction shows the love and care that is going into this gentleman's future dream home.

The garage and generator buildings are used to store building materials.  All of the site-sawn lumber was graded on site and air dried in a custom drying shed, pre-sealed and oiled on site, then stored under reflective tarps until it time to be used on the home.

Click on Any Image to Enlarge

The home will over look the meadow below, a forest to the East, and the Pacific Ocean is less then a mile to the West.  On a clear day the blue Pacific gleams on the horizon, inviting the viewer to hours of staring into the “future” with an afternoon of peaceful thoughts.

Months ago the owner started sorting out different designs for his doors.  Taking what he already had on the structures he had on his property, he added little details and varied designs.  I think I drew 3 or 4 different designs for the lower doors and his Great Room doors.  We changed some of the sizes, due to framing changes, and settled on the final designs.  Custom really means custom.

The owner has decide on Ribbon Grain VG Mahogany with figured Old Growth Redwood panels.  Some of the glass will be clear and some will be a textured art glass, called Seedy Reamy.  All of the glass will be tempered and insulated.


For more unique custom doors please visit our Website.

 

Phew!! .......... what a day in the shop.

I sat back, at the end of the day on Friday, and gazed at the organized chaos that was spread out from floor to rafter and covered the benches with pieces of upcoming projects.  The shop looks like a disaster, but it is all methodically thrown together (or apart).

For instance, along side my table saw/bench, as you walk in there is an 8 ft template of a transom we’ll be making soon

This will fit into an arched jamb that is above a grand entry with two sidelights.

We cleared the center bench to lay down a door (for wrapping) that will be picked up on Sunday. by a client who will travel across the state to view his new entry door

When a client takes the trouble to come to our little corner of the world I like to turn on some spotlights and unveil their door ........ it’s very rewarding to watch their reaction to seeing and touching their new door in person.

While I was waiting for some thick veneers to be sanded for a round top door jamb (coming up), I made a template for my wife make her next stained glass window.  It will have an arched top and have a Coastal Cypress scene.

By making an accurate template she is able to take her finished piece and have it set into insulated glass

Yesterday morning I finished laying out and mortising for two garden gates and they were glued up in the afternoon, and put to rest (glue cure) for at least 3 days. 

A gentleman wrote me and asked for an estimate on a similar gate design ........... so I decided to make a “couple” gates to be able to give a “real and factual” estimate.  I’ll keep you posted.

After resawing and gluing 6 pieces, we placed them in a form where they will stay for 3 days.  These pieces will make the top of the door jamb for an upcoming arched top door for a gentleman outside Chicago.

The best method (I believe) to make an arched top door is to make the jamb, in which it will fit, first and then use that as a template for the top of the future door.

Along the same forethought, I have built a round top Redwood door, making the jamb first, so I now have to make an arched stop for the top of the jamb

The 2-3/4” wide stop, mirrors the arched stop.  It even has a built-in-groove that will receive the weather stripping.

Oh yes .......... since we make arched top gates I realized that we needed arched stops for the top stops of the gates

All of my arched stops are multiple thin boards  that are laminated together in a proper thickness to match the other stops to be used in these beautiful gates.

Then there was 3 different projects (to come soon) which will require 2 layers of marine plywood to be laminated together.

These pieces full of clamps help add to the “organized chaos” as I gazed about the room.

But wait, there’s more !! ............... between my two main benches is this monolith of a solid (appearing) Redwood Plank door, on its edge with these funny clamps, pressured to plywood strips, which will have been clamped at this juncture for 5 days.

These clamped plywood strips are applying constant  pressure on two stainless steel 3” wide strips.  The stainless strips will have the 18” pulls (picture above) at handle height.  Please come back to see the finished entry door.

Last but not least, we have a very simple, yet elegant, quarter sawn White Oak door that will grace a restored miners cabin in the hills above Death Valley, California

above are the Quartersawn White Oak panels in the vacuum press. The fact is ........ I have so much in clamps, I thought I’d share the “chaos” with you.

Please visit our Current Projects Page to see some of what we are working on, and all of the craftsmanship that goes into each door.

Also, please visit Our Door Gallery to see a variety of uniquely crafted custom doors.

Design-Your-Door.com ............ For Real !!

Thought I’d point out that I really give my clients the time and opportunity to design the door for their home, store, or lodge.  We meet, usually over the phone or the web, and there is a series of questions to find out if I’m a real person or a factory rep.  They usually see a door on my SITE (link) that they envision on their home .......... but with a “few” changes.  I frequently draw 2, 3, or 4 versions of my clients ideas and slowly but surely we narrow down the design until “it’s just what they wanted”.  I am happy to draw and redraw versions until I come up with the fulfillment of the clients dream door, that is my goal.

and turn it into Custom Doors

I have an entire section on my Site to drawings that I have drawn for clients and not yet created.  .......... I think you’ll see that I’m happy to draw ideas for you.......... ‘till we get it right.

The theme and glass color in this door, was designed by my client in Alaska.

  The upper white and blue glass signify the sky and clouds 

above the setting sun on the ocean and horizon.

The gold rays were laid out (exactly) by my client,

 and only he knows their exact meaning

I realize now, that the one of the pleasures of  "going to the office" each day. is knowing that I can play a part in fulfilling my clients vision and dream for their home of office.

This is an idea I had for an interesting
custom entry door.
I make a few doors each year, just because I want to.
I call them ....... "self commissions"

I want each of my clients to see their dreams and “spirit” in their door.  My doors are designed and constructed to last 100 years.  I make a statement on my site, and I try to live by it.

                         "To sacrifice quality, is to deprive future generations of our craft"

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