New Doors!

Well, something we've always wanted to do in our house is replace the existing hollow-core doors with solid wood doors. Since we have a 2-story house, we decided to first replace the doors downstairs. Our trim downstairs is painted white, so the doors will be painted white as well...but we wanted to make sure that the paint took well to the wood...so we put in Poplar doors (as opposed to Pine which is less expensive). We had a handy-man we trust do the work (Ron). He recommended just putting in new slabs instead of replacing the entire door frame...to avoid issues with redoing the trim. Ron's price was very reasonable.

We had a doggie-door to the basement for our cat Veto, but it was much too large...we worried Sammy might crawl through it and tumble down the steps. Ron suggested putting an opening in the wall (see the red arrow in the pics below). In all, it looks like a good job, the doors feel much better to open and close now having some substance to them. Also, they look much nicer (just imagine them painted white...we will be painting our kitchen this year).

Now the tough part...

• $474 for the door slabs (Pine would have been oh so cheaper...and looked that way)
• $290 for labor (not a bad deal considering the wall opening he cut and framed out)
• $100 for door knobs and hardware bought at Menards' famous 15% off anything you can fit in a brown paper bag sale
  

Our handy-man Ron looks sorta like Ron Howard...
...we're very pleased with all the work he's done for us...

Look at how thick the layer of plaster is on the gypsum board...
...on the left is part of the wall from the kitchen...
...on the right is part of the wall from the basement stairwell..

The before and after...from left to right..
...our front closet, basement door, bathroom door, pantry...
...click on photo to enlarge...keep in mind we will be painting kitchen...