Door Delivery

We got word that our Iron front door was finally on its way. It was manufactured in China, so getting here was a bit of a process. The delivery company confirmed my fears though: they only deliver during the day on weekdays, and it weighs 930 lbs! Worst of all there was very little notice as to what day it would be. They called on Friday and it was delivered on Tuesday. Dean offered to take the afternoon off work and Sarah put out the call on Facebook for help, and Laurie, Jade, and Cody came to rescue, along with both of Sarah’s parents. On top of the door delivery, Sarah had a huge final paper due Tuesday that she was scrambling to finish.

Curbside delivery

The delivery window was noon to two, and at five to noon the truck showed up. It wouldn’t fit on a pallet jack, so we manhandled it onto the lift gate and got it down to the street. Once we had it slid to the side of the street the truck was gone and we were left to deal with how to get it into the house.

Door inside

The door itself was wrapped separately from the frame with sidelights, so first we got that into the house. It was heavy, but not terrifically so, and it went relatively smoothly. We figured this process wasn’t going to be so bad after all. I called Dean and told him not to worry about leaving work. Then I went to move the frame… it weighs everything.

I called Dean to ask if he could come after all. While we waited for him to get there we ate lunch and we debated the best method to move it. I broke out the furniture-mover robots (the plastic things that slide easily) and Mike employed some leverage with 2x4s to get the frame up on the curb. We decided to move it to the stairs still on the steel pallet, since the door has brackets that stick out.

Dean arrived and with much heaving, shoving, pulling, and shouting, the door frame slowly worked its way to the porch, up the stairs, and into the house. Once again, friends and family came through!

Frame inside

We thanked everyone profusely, and Dean and Mike even stayed to work on grinding down the wall in the basement for the second half of the mechanical room panel. Also, Sarah got her paper turned in on time.

Mike and Dean grinding

We can’t wait to get it installed, but there are a few things we need to do before then. At this point, just turning the frame upright seems like a serious challenge, let alone putting it into the wall. We’ll get there eventually. Our goal is to get the door and windows installed before the weather gets too cold.