Road Trips

Mexico City Road Trip

By now you have likely heard about the earthquake that caused property damage, injuries, and deaths in Mexico City and the state of Puebla on Tuesday.  This one followed on the heels of another earthquake about a week and a half before, near the border of Mexico and Guatemala.  I am fine and we didn't feel a thing, although it shook me up a bit to receive bits and pieces of the news from friends as I was trying to do a code update via webinar.

By |2017-09-21T09:38:20-04:00September 21st, 2017|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|11 Comments

Copper Doors

We visited Santa Clara del Cobre, a town known for it's amazing copper work. I didn't find a lot of copper doors, but the pair below is on the entrance to the Museo del Cobre. The doors are wood, with small copper overlays attached which look like they were done by various artisans...

By |2017-07-21T23:49:38-04:00March 24th, 2016|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|6 Comments

TD Garden, Boston

Some of you might be thinking..."Doors can't be disguised like that!" but this mural is on the access or ingress side of the door, not the egress side. The model codes require means of egress doors to be readily distinguishable and easily recognizable as doors, but this requirement is typically applied to the egress side of the door...

By |2018-01-04T12:18:03-05:00July 14th, 2015|Means of Egress, Road Trips|8 Comments

FF: Essaouira, Morocco

And now...for my last post from Morocco, some Fixed-it Friday photos from Essaouira. If you've never visited, it is a beautiful city with an old fort, a busy port, talented wood carvers, a sandy beach, fresh seafood, and the fattest cats in all of Morocco. Oh - and lots of doors that are fighting corrosion from the salt air. Enjoy!

By |2017-07-28T09:52:19-04:00August 14th, 2014|Beautiful Doors, Fixed-it Friday, Road Trips|3 Comments

Back to Cape Cod

A few years ago I took my family to a resort on Cape Cod for winter break, and I spent this past weekend at the same resort.  On our first visit, I found a lot to write about...the hinges on all of the cross-corridor doors had been modified (sometimes very badly) and were no longer code-compliant for fire doors, the fire doors connecting the 8 buildings were propped open with wedges and the latches had been removed, the swimming pool egress doors were questionable, and there were a few other issues.

By |2016-08-23T21:01:58-04:00January 6th, 2014|Door Closers, Fire Doors, Hold-Opens, Road Trips|13 Comments

The Parthenon – Nashville, Tennessee

A few years ago I posted some reader photos and information about the replica of the Parthenon, in Nashville.  Since I'm here this week for CONSTRUCT, I went over early this morning to see it for myself.  I have one more day at CONSTRUCT, starting with the Bloggers' Panel in room 205C of the Music City Center.  Come on over if you have any questions for the panel of bloggers - Dave Stutzman (SpecWords), Elizabeth O'Sullivan (Comments from a Specwriter), Charles Hendricks (Design Matters), Eric Lussier (Eric D. Lussier), and me!

By |2017-10-12T20:30:52-04:00September 26th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|5 Comments

Public Library – Nashville, Tennessee

I'm in Nashville this week for the CONSTRUCT show, and I've been scoping out some of the beautiful doors in town. My 1 vs. 100 Fire/Life-Safety class went well today...nobody fell asleep or faked an injury so they could leave early. Tomorrow I have 1 vs. 100 Electrified Hardware at 2:45, so if you're here at CONSTRUCT, head over to the Learning Pavilion. I decided today that the only thing worse than speaking to a large crowd is speaking to nobody, but luckily I had a pretty full class. Tomorrow will be the same "game show" format but with a different topic, so come back if you attended today! On Friday morning at 9:30 (room 205C), I'm participating in the CONSTRUCT Bloggers Panel, so if you've ever thought about starting a blog, have any questions about blogging, or just want to meet some bloggers, come on down!

By |2013-09-29T19:10:00-04:00September 25th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Means of Egress, Road Trips|5 Comments

Hursley House – Hampshire, England

Twelve years ago I was new to the town where I currently live, and I knew almost nobody.  It was hard to meet people back then - I had no kids and my husband and I both worked in other towns.  My family and a bunch of my friends were still back in Vermont, where I started my career with a door and hardware distributor.  My coworkers at Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies (yes, I have worked at IR for almost 19 years!!) were wonderful, but they were busy with their families (I used to babysit their kids and take care of their pets).  I remember signing up for classes just to try to find some friends - cooking, roller blading, line dancing...you name it.  Are you getting the picture?  I was desperate to connect with someone I had something in common with.

By |2013-09-01T09:02:14-04:00August 30th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Locks & Keys, Road Trips|0 Comments

La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel

For some of you, this story will confirm my nerdiness.  I'm ok with that.  My trip to San Miguel de Allende is almost over - we're flying home on Saturday.  I have hundreds of door photos to sort through, and I will post some in the coming weeks.  But there was one pair of doors that I had not been able to photograph properly - the doors of La Parroquia, the beautiful church on the south side of el Jardin, which is the garden at the heart of San Miguel.  I have visited the church MANY times during my stay, at all times of the day and night, hoping to find the doors closed.  I've asked several people what time the doors open in the morning, but so far, no luck.  I couldn't go home without photographing the doors of the unofficial symbol of SMA, right?

By |2013-09-01T09:04:31-04:00August 15th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|2 Comments

Boston Strong

Last month I wrote about my experience on the day of this year's Boston Marathon.  The slogan "Boston Strong" has emerged since then as the ultimate description of this city, which will not let senseless violence beat us down.  This weekend my friend and I took our kids downtown, and our first stop was the makeshift memorial that has sprung up next to Trinity Church and across the street from the Boston Public Library.  I was surprised at the very long line of people inching through the display of running shoes, flowers, notes, candles, hats, stuffed animals, and other mementos that have been left at the site, and also the multiple news vehicles parked along the street.  I'm still wondering what story they're waiting to capture...survivors visiting the memorial?  Famous people?  I guess I'll have to watch the news and see.

Public House

As always when I travel, I've been on the lookout for interesting doors during my trip to Las Vegas.  I saw these last night at dinner.  They're beautiful (and huge!) carved wood panels, hung on center pivots which are offset from the edge.  When the doors are closed (see below), there is a gap at the hinge edge.

By |2013-05-01T19:22:04-04:00April 9th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|6 Comments

The Tampa Bay Hotel (Interior) – Tampa, Florida

I'm back in the snowy north, hunkered down while the snow piles up.  This is my last post from my trip to Tampa.  For next week I'm working on another post about glass (yes, there's more!), as well as a post about school security - particularly the "creative" and often non-code-compliant methods I've seen a lot of lately.  If you've run into any interesting security modifications for schools, send them along!  Have a great weekend all!

By |2015-12-30T09:44:39-05:00February 8th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|7 Comments

The Tampa Theatre – Tampa, Florida

This is a travel week for me - I'm in Tampa, Florida for the winter meeting of the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA - check out their new website!).  I have more posts in the works on school security and wired glass, but while I'm on the road, you know that I like to share the cool doors that I see with all of you.  I'll get back to the code-related posts next week.

By |2014-11-25T23:27:35-05:00February 5th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|6 Comments
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