New Cedar Door for My Old Shed

Five years ago, my wife and I bought a cabin in Northern Minnesota. Our family spends the summers living and working from this scenic spot near the Canadian border.

In the past, I have shared my experience constructing a deck for the cabin and building an office in the back of the old garden shed . This year, I resolved to improve the exterior access door on the shed.

The old door served this shed well, but it was showing its age. To make the shed more accessible and welcoming, I wanted to increase the height of the door. To begin the project, I needed to move some electrical wires and make a plan for new framing.

I needed to be careful removing the original framing so as not to damage the old pine tongue and groove siding planks. This required a lot of careful (time consuming) work with my DeWalt oscillating multi-tool.

An unexpected challenge I encountered was that the original framing was not square or level. I did my best to work around this situation as I installed new studs.

I used three 2x4 boards to make a new header for the top of the door frame. With the framing complete, I was ready to install the new door.

I ordered a custom cedar door from Rustica in Utah . The door arrived in a semi-truck with a 53-foot long trailer. The truck was too large to get down our lakeside street, so I met the driver about a half mile away. We used a Bobcat with pallet forks to offload the large shipping crate.

The shipping crate for the door was big, measuring 9 feet long and 4.5 feet wide.

Inside the crate was the new door! The door had some minor surface scratches, but was overall beautiful.

The new door is large and heavy. I hired a local college kid to help me get it lifted into place and installed.

I spent a few hours working with a level to shim the door frame to the best of my ability. After adding some touch-up paint, the project was ready for trim and hardware.

I chose a Baldwin handset in satin black and purchased a "thick door kit" to make the hardware accommodate the 2.25 inch thick door.

This was a fun, albeit challenging project! I am really happy with this door and the new life it has given to this 70+ year old shed.

My PTO came to a conclusion, and, before I headed back to work, I enjoyed a lovely sunset over the lake.

I would like to give a special thank you to my loyal friend, Stella the German Shepherd, for providing moral support and companionship throughout this project.