French Door Installation

Here is the opening in which the client wants to install french doors. My client is a pianist and professor of music at THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!) here in Columbus, Ohio and she sometimes gives piano lessons in the home. She originally had hung a curtain over the opening in an attempt to close off the lesson area during lesson time. Her dream has been to have french doors installed between the two rooms. She told me of her dream and now it was time for me to step in and make that her reality.

Enter Jerry Newkirk and the Make a Wish Foundation of Columbus, Ohio.

Installing French Doors

Here's a picture of the other side of the opening from the piano's view. It's amazing to think that such a facility would be conducive to music making. Well, we will shortly change that. We are going to have to widen this opening by about a foot and also raise it up a tad to accommodate the new french doors. Oh yeah, this is going to look mighty fine when all is said and done.

Installing French Doors

And thus it began. Luckily, this old house had plaster walls which made life really easy for me. The original plan was to go with 5 foot french doors. After tearing through the wall and surveying the electrical work, we decided that four foot french doors would be more in line with the current state of electrical engineering in this old house. Five foot wide doors may have interfered with the fireplace mantle when open on the reverse side of the wall.

Installing French Doors

Here's a photo of the rough framing of the opening for the doors. You can see that about a foot or so from the ceiling, I've readied the frame for installation of the header. The header will support the weight of the house above the doors and keep this old house standing tall.