Back on its track

This pocket door has been off its track and unusable for decades.

It was that way when we bought this house in 2000 and probably long before than because we found coal dust in and around the track from which it hangs. I tried to put it back on its track when we bought the house, but quit when I realized it would mean tearing into the woodwork - something I was not prepared to do.

Austin said fixing it has been his dream since we first moved in back in the spring of 2001 and he's fulfilling his dream. He tore off the woodwork on the other side of the door the other evening and figured out how to get the door back on its track, lubricating it with a dry lubricant made by the WD-40 folks.

The door dates from the original construction of the house in 1903 and separates the parlor from the dining room.

I cleaned off the dust and cobwebs this afternoon and went over it with a furniture cleaner/moisturizer bringing out some of the hidden beauty of his heavy oak door.

Excuse the hideous purple paint. That's what happens when renters are left to paint over wallpaper without asking the landlord.