This is what we found. We already knew about the electrical wire. We would have to reroute it over the doorway and possibly move the box a bit further down. What we didn't bargain for is hiding down there next to the bottom of the middle stud - an anchor bolt. That's right where the door was going to go. We couldn't just remove it because I like the idea of my house staying attached to the foundation. We would have to figure out a way to replace it, but concrete is not the most friendly of materials to work with.
That afternoon, Dad drilled the holes through the studs and header for the wire rerouting. Drilling through the header is slow work. I got doorknobs attached to most of the interior doors.
Saturday dawned and we worked on a solution to our anchor bolt problem. We thought about renting a ram set gun the drive nails through the sillplate and into the concrete. Turned out to be a bit too expensive to rent. We ended up going to the local hardware store and discussing the problem with a helpful clerk there. He hooked us up with these bolts pretty much made for that purpose. You drill a hold in the concrete, drop in the bolt, and then hammer the top. When you hammer, it spreads out these clawlike things at the bottom to grip in the concrete.
That afternoon, Dad spent most of his time drilling two holes in the concrete - one on either side of the new door.
He's great. I know he wore himself out doing so. I love you!
I painted the door frame of the guest room.
Mom did some touch up painting in various places and filled holes in moulding and doors with joint compound. Eventually, the concrete decided that Dad could have his holes. He then pounded the bolts into place.
After that, Dad and I worked on rerouting the wiring over the doorway. Mom was working on her own electrical project in the kitchen. Since we'll be putting tile on the walls, the two electric boxes there need to extend out a bit so they won't be recessed behind the tiles. So was only relatively successful in that venture. The boxed were not being very friendly with her. Dad and I had more success with our rerouting, as you can see (if you look carefully).
We were finally ready to take out the window and replace it with the door on Sunday. Dad was hoping we would have gotten it done on Saturday, but that anchor bolt really messed things up. First thing, Dad and I removed the window from the wall. After that, Dad cut the stucco from the window opening to the ground.
You can see the plastic we put up to keep most of the masonry dust out of the house. After that, Dad cut out the remaining boards.
The double studs on the left were kept. Two more studs had to be added to the right so the frame of the door would be well supported. Dad added those as well. While he was doing those jobs that didn't need any help, I put up the ceiling trim in the master bedroom. Mom was generally spending the day cleaning and fixing outlets and switches. Finally, we laid out the door and were ready to put it in place.
I stayed on the inside and directed where to move the door while Mom and Dad lifted it up. Getting a door just right is a pain. After it was up, we had to make sure it was in a good location front to back so that the frame would line up with the sheetrock, which wasn't there yet. Once that was good, we had to make sure it was plumb in every direction. All of this took a lot of wiggling and back and forth. Once one side was good, fixing the other often meant readjusting the first. It took a bit of time, but we eventually got it. I was then able to add the doorknob and lock.
While I did that, Dad filled in the hole to the right of the door with a board. The original window was wider than the door. Then, I had to fill in the screw holes on the back of the door with little plastic plugs. Dad cut off the shims. Finally, the door was done. Now we just need to add the insulation, sheetrock, texture, and paint.
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