Home Improvements: Project 1: Redo the Half-bath, Part VI

The half bath under the stairs had its door installed so that it opened outward from the right to the left (I can never remember which way door "handedness" is determined, but the pictures below should suffice to explain the situation). This had two disadvantages. First, it swung into the path that people normally use to get into the room. Second, it was awkward to reach the light switch when entering the room. I had never realized before that most light switches are installed on the same side of the door as the knob and latch.

I have to assume that this was part of the original design of the house, and my best guess is that it was done to avoid a situation where the bathroom door could collide with the utility hall (the adjacent room with the washer and drier) door. It's a smart idea, but a smarter idea is to have the bathroom door open the other way and to use a hinge mounted doorstop to prevent the two doors from entering each other's path. The bathroom door never has to be opened much more than 90 degrees anyway.

It was our good fortune that we had just removed an opposite door from the upstairs bathroom (and replaced it with solid wall). It was an identical size and style, so we decided to use it to replace the awkward door.

I bought a 3/4" wood chisel for this work after checking our house books and the Internet for advice. I took off the old door with a screwdriver. So lets get to the pictures already.

Here is the precision cutout from the old hinge on the left side of the door frame:

I measured carefully by shimming under the new door to hold it at the appropriate height (using a level and a builder's square all the while), and then I used a hinge to sketch the areas to be chiseled:

I started by using a hammer to gently tap the chisel, but I soon discovered that it was easier to just push it by hand. After some time, I had two hinge cutouts that looked like this:

After the cutouts were both capable of holding a hinge piece flush with the frame, I drilled pilot holes and pulled the pin out of each hinge. I screwed the frame sides of the hinges in place. Then I screwed the door sides of the hinges onto the doors. I took a deep breath and tried to fit the door into place. It went together like a dream. Here is a completed hinge and then a picture of the door at this point (you can see how the two doors would collide if they were both opened all the way):

Having chiseled the rounded holes for the hinges, I felt that cutting the square hole for the new latch plate would be cake. First, I installed the new doorknob and latch in the same manner as I had already done for all of the other downstairs doors. Then I carefully measured the place where the new latch plate would need to go, starting by marking the place where the deep hole would hold the latch. I eventually had a diagram:

And again it was time for chiseling. I accidentally dug a chip out above the pattern, but it can be filled in. I made the latch hole as deep as possible without having to hold the chisel at an awkward cutting angle (in this picture it's at about half of its final depth):

Once the plate was installed, the door looked as good as any other in the house (at least when you can't see the half-and-half paint job and the pieces of scotch tape that someone had painted onto the inside of the door). In this photo, the door stopper is also installed:

Here are the tools I used for this project, clockwise from upper left: cordless drill/screwdriver accessories, bucket o' hinges and door stoppers, Dremel tool with wood bit, Phillips screwdriver, old and new doorknob kits, 3/4" wood chisel, 16-oz. hammer, carpenter's square, level, leather gloves, cordless drill/screwdriver, flat screwdriver, tape measure, and some other stuff that wasn't part of this project. In the second picture: drill bits, wastebasket full of wood shavings, chisel holster, bag o' screws, and utility knife. Not pictured but very important: safety glasses, ear plugs, and vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess!