Weekend Warrior - Door FAIL

Second on my task list for the weekend was installing my storm/screen doors.  The door on the front porch was old and wouldn't latch. Just in terrible shape.  And there is no door on the side door, which feels weird to me.  I had already purchased matching doors a few weeks ago from Menards.  I just needed a volunteer (preferably with experience!) to help.  Luckily for me, my dad stepped up to help out.

Opened the box and directions directions.  We puzzled over them for a while and then finally decided to just take the old door down.  Cordless drill fail for me when the battery died.  Plugged it in while my dad ran to his house for his corded drill and some other necessary tools.  We get the door off but can't dig out the last piece that is under the brick moulding (a piece of trim at the top of the door).  We decide to let that go for a while.  We go to install the new door - and it turns out that the door is too small.  Ergh.  Load it back into the box and go to exchange it at Menards.  Reciept fail when I can't find the door receipt in my wallet or receipt pile. Yes. A pile.  But lucky for me, as long as you paid by plastic it can be looked up. Woot!

Old door parts and that tricky moulding piece

Get the 32 inch door.  Stop at my parents house again for a pry-bar to get the moulding down.  Get home, unload, get a beer.  Open up the new door and start drilling.  Got the holes drilled in the door and hung!  Yea!  Stepped back, admired the view...and noticed....a 4 inch gap at the bottom of the door. What the....

Turns out, the door opening there was 84 inches.  Rather than the standard 80/81 on most doors.  Take door down (sob) and measure again.  Decide that the door has to be reframed for a header at the top.  We give up. Le Sigh.  Now I have NO screen/storm door on either door.  Looks really strange.  I'm hoping I'll get a header soon. 

Payment for a days hard work

As it would happen, the screen door for the side door also won't fit - it measures at ~35.5 inches, which makes it too small for the 36 in. door, but too large for the 34 inch door.  What's a girl to do?!?!!?!?  It is, however, a standard height.  Small miracles.

Finished Project!

I *finally* finished painting the doors.  I had to combat a week of rain (well, not really combat but wait out).  I think they look awesome, even if you don't. Ha!

Finished project:
Purchased:
paint: 1 gallon Behr outdoor Luscious
primer: 1 quart outdoor tinted primer

Already owned:
tape
paintbrush
roller
tray

All in all, the project didn't take long in actual work time - I did one coat of primer and six coats of paint.  When I did paint, I did two coats in succession - so it was 3 actual times of painting.

Here is the finished product

Not too shabby, eh?

I think I'd like to change the door hardware to black or a silver color.  What say you?

Doors Update

Slowly but surely, the doors are coming together.  So far I've got 1 coat of primer and 4 coats of color on them. I'm hoping that after another 2 coats the doors will be at the correct shade.

Up close and personal with the front door:

As I'm driving away from the side door....

So, up close its LIKE WOAH, but from a distance it's pretty eleganski (elegant for you non-polish speakers ;) )

I'm Painting the Roses Red...

Or, in my case, the doors!

After convincing the paint guy that yes, I did want red, yes, its ok that I have to prime, and yes, its ok that it would take several coats, I finally left the orange store with a gallon of Luscious and a quart of tinted primer.

Here goes nothing...

Goodbye bland wood door...

And hellllloooooo red!

Oh my...am i sure this won't wind up fuchsia?!?

First I sanded the doors - was quick and easy.  I might make it easier than its supposed to be...I'm pretty lazy with the sanding.  Then came the tinted primer.  My doors turned pink!

Hmmm, maybe I should stick with pink.

Since I was doing two doors, I had a good system set up.  First I sanded and primed the front door.  While that was drying, I sanded and primed the side door.  Then I cleaned up my roller, brush and tray.  By the time I was done with that, the front door was ready for the first coat of color.

Then I moved on to the side door for the first coat of red back there.  Since this didn't take as much time as the first bits, I got to take a break between painting...rather than watching the paint dry I played on the internet, checked my reader, and talked to my sister.  By the way - did you see her post today? HILARIOUS

Second coat time!  So quick and easy.  The one thing I have trouble with second coats is that sometimes it's hard to see exactly where you've already painted.  But, I muddled through and tried not to have drips...but its inevitable for me. Got the two coats done, then cleaned up my brush, roller and tray for the day.  I imagine I will have two more coats tomorrow, but I didn't want you waiting so anxiously for my choice.

Front door after primer and two coats of color.

View from the outside - it pops nicely I think.

Side door - eventually I'll get my new storm door up. Nice, yes?

Now, to clear up how I made my decision.  I really liked the dark blue.  And dark blue won in the poll.  But I was worried that it just wouldn't POP enough from the street.  I wasn't sold on the dark red that I had the sample of though - it seemed just too dark.  My decision then had me thinking about the shutters that I want to eventually get.  I wouldn't want super bright red shutters for the windows - so either I do the dark blue or dark red for the door and do matchy-matchy shutters, or pick a brighter red and do black shutters.  

I'm so entirely drawn to really bright doors - bright red, bright yellow, etc.  So, I went with a new option entirely and choose my Luscious color (the trend of picking paint colors with appetizing names continues).

So, what do you think? The man at the orange store promises me that after several coats and drying time, it will go from fuchsia to the red.  I sure hope so....More painting tomorrow!

Quick hit!

I'm *planning* on painting doors tomorrow!  Stay tuned for the unveiling of the color choice.

To recap: Dark blue won the vote count, followed by the dark red color.

PS: Has anyone ever installed a doorbell?  For some crazy reason I don't have one. I've never been in a house that didn't....

Poll Time!

I *love* the look of painted doors.  I'm a color girl, and it is very distressing to have a white and grey house, with blah colored doors.

So, please take a look at my sample colors and then vote at the poll at the top of the page.

Dark Blue, Light Blue, Red...something different?

ETA: It is an exterior door - my house colors are white and pale grey and my storm doors are white. I thought painting the exterior would give it a good punch of color.