“They look like they could have been there from the beginning!”  The volunteers who have been working on the ongoing renovations to our church building could receive no higher praise. A second set of doors was recently completed and installed in the front opening between the chapel and the knave in our church sanctuary.

The three sets of doors started out as oak boards cut to rough width and lengths. The first step was to cut the boards to width and plane them to the correct thickness, a full 1¾”.  Trim was milled to resemble the cove molding used on the reredos screen (the wall behind the altar) and the bottom rail (that’s the short piece across the bottom of each door) also cut to match.

Each set of tri-fold doors work a bit like a closet door but with an extra door in the center. When the doors are in their usual configuration, the panels on each side form a wall, while the center panels act as a double door, providing easy access to the chapel. 

Next workers need to install some special door hardware called a “cremone,” often used on older, high end cabinetry or french windows (a pair a windows that often open “in” to a room in an older home. An aluminum metal threshold is being fabricated to receive the bottom slide bolts from the doors and provide a cleaner transition from the old floor tile in the knave to the porcelain tile in the chapel.

A third set of doors is being fabricated and will, hopefully, be installed before the Christmas Candlelight Tour the weekend of December 7 & 8.  And if not by that date, certainly before services on Christmas Eve.