Measure Twice. Cut Once.

Over the years I am sure many have heard this adage. I know it has been mentioned to many time and time again. Regardless of how many times it’s heard, it seems to bite me in the ass. This time it was the interior doors I was replacing. I had already removed all the prehung interior doors for the upgraded 6 panel doors, available at any big box store.

I spent the time to mean the ‘rough opening’ and note the direction I needed the door to open. I went to Lowe’s and picked up a few doors, installed 3 doors for the remodel. This last week I spoke to the guys doing all my wall and door trim work and they said they would install the remaining doors after being painted. Unfortunately I screwed up and when I bought the remaining 4 doors and did not take into account the ACTUAL door size, three of which were 32″ and one was 30″. So at Lowe’s I pick up just that.

I get home, and to my surprise I cannot get the doors in the rough opening, then I realized my mistake. I measured the rough opening correctly, but did not subtract 2″ for the door frame. So now I spent an additional $200 on doors and am stuck with 3 doors that do not fit in our house.

So chalk it up to yet another lesson when it comes to a remodel. If you measure the rough opening, then look on the new, prehung door for the ‘R.O’ dimensions, not the actual door dimensions. Sounds simple, yet I screwed it up.

Thankfully the last door was installed yesterday, but it set back the contractors about half a day. Instead of being able to wrap things up today, it will probably be Monday before the remaining moulding and door trim will be finished. To date, it looks beautiful! It really adds to the overall remodel. I am very pleased with the decisions that were made on the moulding.