Slim and Trim

The only thing we didn't really get done on Sunday was replacing the trim around the door. We got it in place yesterday and everything is looking great!

You know how I said that caulk is a homeowner's best friend? I think I said that. If I didn't, I should have, because it totally is. If you asked me what material my house was made of a week ago, I'd have said "wood and stuff" and now I would be forced to say "wood and caulk, but mostly caulk." We went to freakin' town last night. Here's a sample:

We're sealing cracks, filling gaps, and generally just jamming this stuff in wherever we can. This will be the least leaky door in the history of ever when we're done. We also upgraded to silicone caulk instead of the latex stuff. The latex is cheaper and cleans up with water, but it also hardens over time and UV light tends to break it down. The silicone stays flexible and awesome forever, so it means a lot less re-doing it over time. Make sure you get the paintable stuff, because not all silicone is.

See what I mean? Under, over, behind and through, every little gap is getting filled. Any moisture that was in these wall panels should have gotten a chance to air out over the past few days, and now no new moisture will ever get in there ever. Our OSB is going to be like the Sahara.

We got to use the original trim piece on the top here, which was cool. It didn't get too torn up, and it meant one less piece we had to cut and such.

Here's a test fit of this side piece. There was a lot of test fitting and shaving off little bits and re-fitting. We got this thing fitting like a glove, which was really hard given the shape. The opening wasn't square and the old door wasn't square, but they managed to be not-square in the same way and it worked for them. Since we now have a wonky angle in here, the trim took a lot of work to fit. It looks really good, though, and a little caulk (okay, a lot of caulk) around all the seams will ensure that it's all nice and solid.

There it is with both sides in place. I still need to caulk the joints, but I'll probably get to that tonight. I'm going to caulk all around the steps as well, so moisture doesn't get back behind there and start doing bad things.

Remember this gap? This is how it looks now:

That's a tight fit. We probably won't even need any putty for it. A simple bead of caulk will cover this nicely and then get painted over when we get to that point.

There we go. This project is darned near done, and I'm feeling great about it. Next step is to paint a bit more and I'm hoping to have some pictures of that before too long. Thanks for reading!