Hicks House

You may remember at the beginning of last month I posted about the new fancy crate we bought for our dog Chloe Read the original post here. In an an attempt to be good doggy parents we wanted to break her into the new crate gradually so she didn’t have to many new things to deal with all at once.

Things were going well… until the thunderstorm ... Then this happened:

chewed! Bad Dog!

Our well behaved dog that never chews turned into a monster trying to break free from doggy prison during the storm.

Don’t let this face fool you… she isn’t sorry

Due to this current turn of events, some alterations need to made to the crate. It took a couple of days of brainstorming and another chewing event (apparently once she knew it was chew-able she hatched an escape plan). Some ideas we vetoed –

Putting one of those ugly wire crates inside her wooden crate. This option is quite pricey as those crate run about $100 and in order to fit in the wooden crate it would have to be smaller which cuts down on her room. We still love the booger so this got vetoed.
Putting hot sauce or the sour spray they sell at the pet store on the crate bars to discourage chewing. Chloe actually likes buffalo sauce and wasabi peas so this option seemed like it would just get her to chew more.
Buy a replacement door. Seemed like a viable option, the door is a separate piece that could easily be replaced. Unfortunately an internet search revealed the door is not sold separately, they want you to buy a whole new crate… greedy jerks.

Then Ken had a light-bulb moment… Wire meshing! It seemed like a perfect idea, nice holes so she can still breathe and look out, but will put a barrier between her teeth and the wooden slats. So off to the big Orange store Ken went and came home with a nice big piece for less than $10.

Measured to the size of the door

and cut it with wire cutters

Then we took it upstairs to the crate, lined it up and used some painting tape to hold it in place.

he pre-drilled in all 4 corners and 1 in the middle

Thanks to the chewing machine we were aware that it was made of cheap particle board and didn’t want to risk it splintering by screwing directly into it.

then screwed the mesh in place using the pre-drilled holes

try and chew through that!

Doesn’t look to bad, some wood putty and stain on the few visible chew marks from the front and it should be good as new. And chew proof! We didn’t do the two sides yet, and Chloe has yet to figure out that they are chew-able as well… we’re hoping she remains blissfully unaware.

Peace and order has been restored in the Hicks House (until the next thunderstorm that is)

During our “Operation Rent the Condo” one of the things on the list to make the place as pretty as possible was to replace all the old flat panel wood grain doors with white 6-paneled doors. I originally thought this was going to be such an easy project – I mean they sell the doors already white and pre-drilled so all you have to do is hang them right? WRONG

For starters because our condo was built in the early 1980s, or just because of the way it was built each doorway is not identical to each other. If you are buying pre-drilled doors this is a big problem as they will not line up. So we bought the ones that were not yet drilled – which although cheaper required a lot more labor from Ken to get them ready.

Measure each door, mark where the hinges go, where the knob goes, router out the hinge holes drill the knob hole. It was a big production. However it happened pre-blog so there are no photos of all that.

Perhaps the most helpful of tips though is how we painted the doors (yes you still have to paint them – even though they look white they are just primed). I thought the idea was ingenious, and even though Ken said he didn’t come up with it on his own I’m giving him credit anyway :-).

Step 1 – Drill 2 screws into the bottom unfinished part of the door and one screw into the top unfinished part of the door only about 1/4 to 1/2 way. You are going to use the screws to balance the door on sawhorses so no surface of the door is actually touching the sawhorse.

Top of the door with one screw

Bottom of the door with two screws

See how the door is balancing on the screws? This is important, you’ll see why in a minute. Don’t worry about the little holes this will create as once the door is hung you won’t be able to see the top or bottom edges.

Step 2 – Paint the door. We used Beher Ultra Premium Ultra Pure White Trim and Door paint in Eggshell and rolled all the flat parts of the door then did the panel cut outs with a brush making sure to get the corners real good.

Step 3 – Flip it! That’s right you don’t need to wait for it to dry because the door isn’t touching anything! Here’s how: On the end of the door that has two screws, pick up one screw in each hand just enough so the side with one screw doesn’t lift off the saw horse.

Pick up the two screws

See how the door is balanced on the one screw?

Flip it 180° so the unpainted side is pointed up and then rest the two screws back on the sawhorse. You can know pain the other side while the first side dries. I know, my mind was blown as well. My husband is a genius.

Three doors set up all at once.

We had more than 6 doors to do and only room to do three at a time, so we also came up with a neat way of drying them in order to free-up the sawhorses. Again the screws came in handy. Ken tied a wire around the top screw then we stood them up on the bottom two screws and tied them to some sort of pipe hanging from the ceiling of the garage. (This made me nervous but I was assured it was OK and nothing bad happened)

Drying station

If you’ve ever tried to paint doors by resting it on the sawhorse or worse not taking it off the hinges, this method will change your life. (for the few times in your life you have to paint doors anyway)