Home Lumber Co.

I am constantly trying to keep a list of where to go for vintage house supplies. I know where I can get vintage looking tile in vintage colors, I have the sites selling vintage wallpaper and paint schemes bookmarked and so it goes. But where to go when you want to replace a sixty year old interior door? The last few years, every time I saw a house in the hood about to be demolished, I'd check the interior doors,so I could take one and replace our bathroom door. Our bathroom door suffered the most back when the house was a rental. It had water damage and the knob was cushioned into a mess of wood putty that had been painted over a zillion times to create a surface that was actually stable but soft and it bugged me. I can't stand having something rigged. If I know it's rigged then it's ruined for me. So long as I don't know, I'm fine.

After numerous trips to the Habitat Re-Store and several postings on Craigslist I sort of gave up. I tried to adopt the attitude that if the putty pool around the knob works, doesn't look like putty, no one notices it, then move on. But I couldn't, because it was rigged and it bugged me. So one day on the way to HEB I saw several vintage doors that had been stripped down to the bare wood. I immediately pulled into this place. It was Home Lumber Co. on Burnet Rd. I had heard that this place harbored many an obscure treasure for those wanting to get their vintage homes back to their original state. Unfortunately, none of the doors matched the style or even the measurements I needed. I then noticed that pieces of these doors had been cut out and fitted with new pieces of wood. I didn't notice when I looked the first time because the work was so perfectly and meticulously done. The new wood fit so smoothly, you could barely see the seams. Rigged, but with spectacular precision. They've been repaired!

Frank, the owner, came outside and asked me if I wanted to buy a door. Told him my story and he said to bring the door in and they'd fix it. I drove home and William and I took the door down, hung a heavy curtain up and rushed the door to the Home Lumber Co. Frank said,"It'll be ready in a few weeks, he works slow and carefully. This is a good door, they don't make doors like this anymore, it's Doug fir." Cool! A week later we got a call that the door was done. The damaged wood was out and new pieces fitted so perfectly. When I see something done skillfully and delicately and precise it's hard to ever settle for anything poorly rigged. He told us how to paint it and care for it and we went on our way. It's like a new door again and I know that under that paint there are two perfectly fitted pieces of wood that seamlessly flow into the original door and I'm in complete admiration of the talent behind that.