My dear hubby has this ongoing “To Do List”. Each night he can be seen watching the TV and once in awhile he’ll lean over, grab his notepad and add another thing to it. Just as one thing gets done you can be sure there are more to follow.
One of those items was to freshen up the exterior of our house. We had already decided what the colours we wanted to use for the new shutters and the two exterior doors and front porch column. As one exterior door leads to the garage, and is hidden from most street traffic we felt it should be the same colour as the shutters, along with the front porch column. The only thing we wanted to stand out was our front door, and we decided to go with a deep mustard colour.
This was also one of those house projects on our list that was affordable. The other renovation projects we plan are more expensive and time-consuming and I know we’ll get to them sooner or later. But for now we wanted our little home to look its “Sunday Best”. Nat decided to tackle the job at the beginning of the week. He knew there was going to be a lot of prep work – sanding the doors and column, washing them off, letting them dry and then painting. We had picked up the shutters we ordered from Home Depot a few days before so they were in the garage waiting to be hung. Truth be told we couldn’t wait to get rid of all of that black colour that was dominating the exterior look. We were looking for something new and bright and I think we achieved that.
With guilt hanging over my head, I watched from the office window as Nat sanded and sanded and sanded some more. Getting black paint off is quite tedious, especially when it’s covering red paint underneath. The original house was trimmed in red and the second owners changed everything to black. It was now our turn to put our own stamp on our little cottage. Nat was certain there was nothing I could do and I was at least grateful that the weather was co-operating and the days were perfect. A wee bit of a breeze, no humidity, no rain, just clear skies.
Once the exterior garage door and front porch column were painted, we knew we had made the right decision. Nat then hung the shutters and the place looked better already. It was time to now tackle the front door. After taking it off the hinges, we covered the open space with plastic tarp, taped it down and hoped like hell we didn’t have an influx of birds, bees and chipmunks! Nat knew he had to complete the door in one day as there was no way we could leave the tarp up over night. Sleeping in the living room was not an option! So he started early with the sanding, washing and drying and managed to get the first coat of paint on before 9:00 am. The mustard colour was going to be perfect. Despite the fact the door would need a couple more coats, we were really pleased with our choice. Nice and bright and welcoming, in our opinion.
By suppertime the final coat had been completed (he had to wait at least 2 hours each time). We managed to get the door hooked back up on its hinges and would leave it ajar until he was sure the final coat was dried. We sat watching television that evening hearing the cars rush east and west along Dominion Road and hoping that we wouldn’t have an influx of flies, but that was the chance we had to take. Besides, swatting flies later on would be the least of our worries and well worth the effort. The door looked gorgeous in our opinion. We closed our new door around 9:00 PM knowing that it would shine upon the neighbourhood in all of its glory.
Shining over the neighbourhood
A Fresh Look
Filed under: Family News, Humour Tagged: bright front door, cleaning up exterior of house, Home Depot shutters, new house exterior, new shutters, painting door different colour, painting front door mustard, prep work for painting doors, project to do lists 