The Freecycle Screen Door

If you're not familiar with freecycle, you REALLY need to get in on the action. In our area, it's run on a Yahoo group. People list wanted or offered items for absolutely free. The idea is that we all participate, giving away what we don't need and taking what we do. I love that it keeps things out of landfills and the generous spirit that goes along with each and every post. For my county, I'd say there are usually anywhere between 20 and 30 posts every day so I've opted to receive one daily e-mail listing everything. Most days I actually just delete the e-mail because it's just one of about 20 messages I get every day from various groups and deal sites but one day a couple of months ago I read it and found someone was offering a screen door in our area (like a mile from our house). I contacted them immediately and sent the hubs out to pick it up.

Here it is:

So it was missing all three hinges and the holes for said missing hinges were all stripped and twisted. Sure the slower-downer-closer thingy doesn't work and, well, the whole setup is actually not the direction we want our door to swing but I've never let such obstacles slow me down.

Ok, it slowed me down a little seeing as we've had the door for at least a couple of months and I just finally got around to installing it today but that was partly because the weather hasn't really been nice enough to even want the screen door anyway.

BUT, this brings us to today. As we so often do on nice weekend days, the whole family piled in the car and we headed to Home Depot to grab three screen door hinges. After much deliberation (and the realization that the "screen door hinges" listed online aren't available in store), we decided on some "utility hinges" that seemed strong enough and headed home.

The first thing I did was take off the handle and switch it around so the door would open the right direction. One thing I noticed about this is the middle section with the sliding glass panel now can't be adjusted from inside the house but, um, I'm over it. The next thing I did was remove the broken closer thingy.

Then I headed on over to our front door where a screen door must have once hung because there was the latch catcher as well as some screws and other hardware. I removed it all, even this bad-boy with the completely stripped out screws:

I hated that little latch but I'm trying to stay positive here so I'm going to leave that 45 minutes of swearing out of the story. On a good note, I got to use my Dremel Multi-Max which is a very fun tool.

It was easy enough to attach the hinges using the hardware provided. First I attached them to the door, then, using a piece of scrap wood to help hold it in place, I attached the hinges to the molding on the left side of the door. Then I stood back and realized the trim wasn't straight so my door hangs a little crooked but again, I'm over it.

    

The whole purpose in getting the screen door was to let in more light and air, allow the 3 year old kid to come and go, all the while keeping the 16 year old cat inside. It's amazing what we'll do for our beloved pets isn't it? You'd do the same for this princess wouldn't you?

Anyway, back to the screen door. I think I'm going to paint it black, what do you think? Have you ever painted aluminum? Any tips?

Thank you for reading,
Julie

Other posts you might be interested in:
Garden Markers
The Shed