I have another invisible house success to check off my list – I finally reversed the basement door! I’ve lived in this house for four years, and the basement door swings the wrong direction – it swings out, over the stairs, so if you’re coming inside from the basement/garage, you have to stand on the third step down, open the door towards yourself, and then continue up the stairs. This is entirely against all building codes, not to mention common sense. I know why they did it – if it swings into the kitchen, it interacts with both the back door and the doorway into my studio. But I never use the back door, and I don’t mind it blocking the studio doorway for a moment.

So over the weekend I spent 4 hours to switch the door: taking the door down, re-chiseling the hinge spaces on the door and the doorframe, hanging the door and sanding down a couple spots so it would actually close, re-setting the strike plate, and finally reattaching all the trim for the doorstop. This involved a router for the hinge recesses, plus a chisel to make sharp corners, a sander to shave down the edge of the door, a drill for all the new holes, and a vacuum cleaner to deal with all the sawdust I created. Power tools are the best. Also, wrestling a door into place alone is not an experience I would recommend to anyone (particularly if said door leads to a flight of stairs), but I succeeded in re-hanging it anyway. And now I have a door that opens in the correct direction!