Now that we had a table to work on, we hopped to replacing the shoddy internal entrance. Ramshackle, borer-ridden, insecure, and brittle:

The “lock” was simply a chain through the tin around the frame and through a hole in the door. Fairly effective to a point, I guess, but about as convenient as a dead mouse in your gumboot.

Its other side shows its simple Z-frame construction, which was held together by an assortment of nails. Easy to pry off if someone really wanted in.

We chose to use rough-sawn material for the new door, because we thought that if we used dressed timber it would look out of place surrounded by the “rustic patina” of the surrounding corrugated tin overlapped in hodgepodge fashion.

It was a blast using our new workbench.

We pocket-holed the slats together (don’t worry, they were covered up after by a frame):

Then built a frame, which we mitred at the corners:

 

And another shot because workshop view, aw yeah!

We fixed a horizontal brace for sturdiness, sexiness, and to hide the pocket-holes:

And then screwed the slats to the frame:

And then… Are you ready? I don’t think you’re ready. You might want to sit down for this.

BOOM! You might be thinking “oh yeah, that’s all right I guess”, but did you know that we built this in under a minute?! Okay, that’s a lie, obviously. But still, for a brief moment you were REALLY impressed.

Here it is being held up with the old door still attached for comparison. Should last a bit longer, eh?

Then came the satisfaction struggle of demolition. Arm wrestling these haggard hinges took a bit of elbow grease:

We fixed new sturdier hinges to the door with nuts that wouldn’t un-thread if someone tampered with the bolt heads.

We mounted it, added more secure locking plates, and… hold on to your pants…

SHAZZAM!

From the inside, a little planer, but a good fit (the chain was removed after):

Such a slick product ought to be demonstrated by a model…

SKIDOOSH!

It was also granted approval by our resident everything-inspector:

“Smells like you did a good jobs, guys. You will be rewarded by feeding me extra tonight.”

Next up is replacing that hideous ramp with an actual step:

WTF?