I Got Shown the Door

One of my hopes in the project was to bring forward into the new space some of the historical elements of the old. I mean, after all, there was a lot of beautiful woodwork and craftmanship even in the areas that were deemed worthy of demolition. So General Contractor Pete had his guys carefully remove all doors and door frames, all the trim, all the wainscoting, and so on...they've mostly been stored in the cellar while the project has proceeded.

But Pete's been giving me some stern warnings about whether we'd really be able to get the old doors to work in the new areas we're building, and I think he was going to take it pretty personally if I marred his work with trying to get old and fragile historical elements to fit into the well-planned and well-built new construction. I've gone along with most of the things he's asked us to modify, but doggone it, I really hoped we'd make the doors and some of the old woodwork, well, work.

In a maneuver worthy of Ben Matlock, Pete called me out into the addition late yesterday afternoon (not coincidentally after I came home from a long day of teaching, perhaps!). Lined up along two walls was our collection of salvaged doors, taken from the old bathrooms and closets and kitchen and butler's pantry. As you can see, there is quite a dramatic difference in their sizes, stains/coloring, and condition. Pete's point was well-made, and well-taken. We agreed that new doors will be installed in all the interior areas of the addition while keeping the original doors on a few key transitions from old/original space into new: the coat closet, the main upstairs bathroom, and the master bathroom. Let me confess that, after we worked through that hard discussion, I was sitting in one of the back bedrooms last night watching episodes of the original Star Trek series, and it struck me how beautiful the old door looked that is, for the moment, at the entrance to the newly added guest bathroom for that room. I just hate to see it go...I hate to see us not tie in better with the old house. Part of my thinking was: the doors to the new bathrooms in the guest bedrooms will be mostly observed while one sits in the old/original part of the house...seemed like a good reason to try again to get us to use original doors. I floated that idea this morning with Pete, but it's not a battle I'm going to win. But Pete does promise me that he'll make these new doors look really, really good, and I do believe he will.

But Pete was not through with me yet. He'd also had the guys line up all the trim and molding from the old doorways, all displayed on one of those bright blue tarps he hates so much, so that there it was in all its convincing glory: nothing matched up. Pete is not a careless litigator. Their conditions varied, but all that wonderful old woodwork that looked good to me back when it was in place really didn't measure up. In the end, there could be no question, between all the variation and the aged, fragile condition of it all. First thing this morning, that old trim went into the dumpster, and the old doors went up to the attic for storage. There was also no question about whether any of the old beadboard wainscoting could be used, so it was removed from the front porch and went into the dumpster as well. Does anyone join me in hating to see it all go? Could it be so wrong to hope for a new life for those elements of the original place?