Last fall we did a lot of repair work to the outside of our house. We took off the old wooden clapboard siding that was in rough shape, repaired several rotted sections of wall studs, added overhangs, new vinyl (yuck) siding, completely gutted the bathroom, etc. It was a lot of work and we were under a time crunch to get it done before the snow came. Luckily I had some help from Tim (handyman) on the outside and my father-in-law on the bathroom. Thanks Ty!
We removed an old nasty door surround from the front door when the siding came off, but I wasn’t able to deal with building another at that time. I finally finished the surround the other day and now the front looks much more completed.
Here’s the front without the surround - pretty boring…
Here’s the front with the new surround. My furniture tends to be more mid century in style and while our house is a bungalow, I don’t want the outside to look ultra traditional and clash with the more modern interior. I tried to keep the overall look of the surround largely modern - straight lines, primarily rectilinear and without flutes on the columns. I did add a cove because I didn’t want it to look out of place with the front of the house. I tried to mix the old (traditional) with the new (modern).
Here are some highlight pictures of the build process…
I cut a dado for the horizontal detail near the top of the column. This allows the molding to have a structural connection with the column and shouldn’t ever separate at the corners. It should last a very long time.
Here is the cove for the top of the crown. I made this section from three strips of white pine since it needed to be shaped with molding planes and it works very well with hand tools.
And finally the glue up prior to installing…
Next up is finishing the antique USPS cast iron mailbox I bought last year and putting up the house numbers that my mother bought us. Fancy!
In a year or two I will build a solid cherry front door with carved - not raised - panels. It should compliment the sage color of the house very nicely and will really make the white trim and door surround pop.