Our builders did actually show up, and went right to work installing the new exterior door on our mud room. That went ... not so well. It turns out that the door with its glass arch over head is taller (by 5 1/2") than the opening they'd left for it. That meant re-doing part of the framing on the front wall – and it also meant destroying some of the wiring I'd done. Dang it! That door is now installed, but I have yet to re-do the wiring. They'll be back today to start working on the other three doors.
I made good progress on the fireplace doors. The door itself is now mounted solidly to the fireplace. The remaining work is all mortaring ... but quite a bit of mortaring will be required, as I have belatedly discovered that the front (vertical) surface of our fireplace is not flat. Not even close! There are some places where the fireplace door (which is very flat) is almost an inch from the masonry, while it's in direct contact with about 50% of the front surface. I had to measure this about 10 times before I could believe it, but whoever built this fireplace really did manage to build a brick wall that wasn't straight – not even close. The rock veneer we put in two years ago hides this completely. Looking at it, you'd never know it was out of kilter – you really can only tell when you put a straightedge up against it. It looks like the sort of thing where alcohol might have been involved. :)
