The Dutch Door Diva

Richard is a dichotomy.  Pippi  is both procrastinator, and perfectionist.  When I first met him, we’d planned, because of our mutual love of renovating, decorating and wood-working, to do a series of fixer-uppers and flip them. We did ONE.  And I had to take a year-long break in Scotland to force the final stages out of him at that!  We DO, as you can see on Rural Revivals’ Renos. web-site ( http://rusticrevivals.wixsite.com/ruralrevivals) still harbour hopes of designing and re-doing small country spaces as a part-time hobby, but for the most part we are just concentrating on Blue Belldon Farm.  This is because Richard takes 3 times the amount of time needed to do any job/project.  Mind you, when they are done, they are done very, very well…

The same can be said for the Dutch Door. Since looking to rent a property in Burnsall Bridge when I first taught in England in 1997, I have harboured dreams of having a Dutch Door in my kitchen the top of which can be thrown open to the rolling meadows and daisy-butterfly summer morns.  Perhaps it even goes back further, to when I was 13 and my grandfather McKenzie and I built a small, red,  two-stall stable for my pony. He had Dutch doors on it, but with the “X”s  facing IN, to  which I always objected, as that wasn’t what it looked like in any photos I saw of horses looking over their stable doors! They were made out of quite flimsy plywood, too, and as I progressed from pony to horse, they used to get kicked off in the long cold winters when my poor beasties were bored to death.

 

 

This is me, age 14, lunging a youngster who liked to kick down his flimsy Dutch door (right behind his neck on the little stable I helped my grandfather build in 1977.)

To me, even at a young age, this is how the doors should have looked on my little red barn – facing OUTSIDE. But this faced inside, for the horse to enjoy, I guess?

When I had my own riding stable in the Ottawa Valley, from 1988-1996, I made sure we had the “X”s facing OUT  and that they were a lot stronger to hold the horses in, and the bad weather OUT!  They were lovely:

            Goldcreek Farm’s Overture with me, age 26. Behind, the “Dutch” stable doors.

Then, I moved to England to teach high school. It was in inner city Leeds, and I knew I’d need to live in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales to compensate for that, so I looked at 3 places to rent about an hour’s bus-ride out. One was in the gorgeous Burnsall Bridge, to which I’ve since returned many, many times .  The cottage had a little blue stable door in its kitchen and that was in 1997, and I’ve dreamed of having one ever since!

So now, at Blue Belldon, the  Dutch Door Dream begins.  I imagined, even by Richard’s m.o. and standards, it would take about 10 days. I mean, it’s only a DOOR, for Gosh sakes!  ………It’s been just over 6 weeks.

If you’re interested in the whole process (ie: you or someone you know will make you one), click on each photo to read caption. Otherwise, continue scrolling down!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I painted, then wiped off (to show grain) the outside to match our shutters. It’s a greyish-blue which also ties in nicely with Blue Belldon’s name. Here, the bottom is fit into the frame, and Richard has begun work on the top, into which he will then place the window

Here are both bottom and top halves of the Dutch Door, fit into the frame, and ready for putting into the house. Yay! Then, Richard will install the window, and the hardware we purchased from a company that does welding and gives everything a hammered-steel antique replication!

 

 

 

This is the finished inside of the Dutch door, which I stained to go with the pine wainscotting, then distressed to make it look older and more worn. NO varnish or shellac! It’s not eco-friendly, and the shiny look certainly doesn’t help anything look ‘old’!

Richard shows off the hardware we purchased online. It’s hammered steel, and while he had trouble figuring out the bolts and latch, it works a treat now!

Finally, after 6 long weeks, the DIVA finally has her Dutch Door! Love it, and the front porch is truly my favourite place to sit on the whole property!

In case you’ve forgotten, this is the glorious view from that front porch!

So easy to just throw open the top half for a breather from canning/preserving/baking/cooking, if I like, or to grab some herbs from the herb garden (see prior posting of the way I recycled some of our kitchen drawers on the front porch for this).

Richard enjoys a well-earned rest on the front porch whilst I beam happily from within. The long wait has been worth it!

 

Advertisements