The Fifth Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me,

five french doors,	four redwood gates...	two water heaters,

...and one high tech gas meter.OK, gas meter first; the doors are way more fun.

Because we demolished part of the structure, the city required not only that the meter be pulled, but also that the line be abandoned at the curb. This held off full demo for the first few weeks of the project.

Knowing that gas lines are now flexible hose, our builder had hoped that the gas company would thread the new line through the prior pipe. No such luck. They required a new trench. And that was a cost adder. We're still trying to fully understand the symbol of radio waves showing on the meter mechanism.

The water heaters are way more fun. These are the on-demand, or tankless models. We have one for the kitchen, laundry and guest bath, and another for the master and hall baths. Because they're tankless, less heat is wasted by unused water cooling in a tank. They actually generate more BTUs than the heater and gas dryer.

The gates are exciting as they're an extension of the fence. Our old fence was pretty rotten. We'd held off replacing it as long as possible in anticipation of the remodel. It also was constructed such that the dogs could see movement between the slats, which of course led to much barkage. The new fence is built so that there are no daylight gaps between boards. We've arranged the gates on the east such that the dogs have a run just outside the tack room, and having a dog run was one of the things we'd dreamed of when we first bought this home.

Now the doors. Ahhh, the doors. We'd picked nine-light french doors for the back yard, as we have fond memories of the style from when we worked in France. These models have a solid lower panel, which we're hoping reduces the amount of doggie nose prints on the glass panes.

Our floorplan called for doors between the living and dining rooms, to better define each space and have an option for noise reduction between them. As we got to framing, we realized a door between the entry foyer and great room would contain wet, muddy dogs to the tile floors when needed, and so decided on that cost adder.

We knew we wanted a feeling in these of door/window to preserve an open feeling with light, even if the doors were shut. As noted earlier, the doors noted in the selection list just didn't get this feeling. We described what we wanted, and Isaac Fischer, the Hammerschmidt estimator, found perfect, cost effective compliments to the exterior models.

Our doors are not quite "5 golden rings" like in the song, but for what we wanted, these doors bring "5 classy blings" to the room.