Tag: exterior painting

Front Door Repainting Step 2 (in only two trips to the store!)

Today’s trip to the home improvement store was quick, painless, and I think I only need to go back one more time for this project. That’s pretty good for the novice DIYer, oh yeah!

Today I started my front door repainting project…

  • Decided on a color- isn’t that always the hardest thing to do? I walked right into the paint section, looked at the simplest display, chose the darkest pine green and was finished in less than one minute. The guys at Home Depot had to then redirect me to the proper exterior paints. So I just picked the closest color to the one I liked. Done.
  • Sanded down the whole door by hand with a coarse paper
  • Realized I already owned the proper paintbrush, enough wood filler and the fine sanding paper for the orbital sander. Trip #2 to the store will be for returns only, I hope.
New color- Behr Marquee "Black Evergreen"
The new color- Behr Marquee “Black Evergreen,” click the pic to link to Home Depot’s web page for purchase info…
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stuff on the top right gets to be returned… saves me some $$
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That was the fastest I’ve ever picked a paint color and was in-n-out of a home improvement store EVAH!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to fill in low spots with wood filler and sand down the rest of the door to smooth it all out… that is, if I’m not standing in a Comic Con line to get passes into the fabled “Hall H.”

Wish me luck…

What do DIY Tutorials and Teen Culture Have in Common? You Tube.

“Oh yeah, I learned how to do that on You Tube.”
-Everyone

Everyone except me… I have to admit, I’ve never used online videos to learn how to do anything. Supposedly there is a video tutorial for everything online. The Girl taught herself how to play guitar just by using You Tube and other online tutorials. The Boy is learning coding. And do we even need to mention how every high school student in the country knows about The Vlog Brothers and their Crash Course videos? John and Hank Greene are better than internet rock stars for this generation of students- they are leaders. Don’t know who they are? READ THIS ARTICLE and get your own crash course in Online Teen Culture- “The Teen Whisperer,” by Margaret Talbot as published by The New Yorker Magazine. You will be glad to know that the Youth of today have better role models than the latest pop star or celebrity.

Hide your weather beaten front door behind a Door Monster this Halloween!
Hide your weather beaten front door behind a Door Monster this Halloween!
Fall 2014 1st day of school and the leftovers of the Doctor Who party
Fall 2014 1st day of school and the leftovers of the Doctor Who party… the fez is out of shot, unfortunately.

My July projects include repainting my sorry front door. Hoo boy, is it in bad shape. We’ve abused it with tape and crepe to make a Door Monster for Halloween (and it hid the chipped, faded paint!), and turned the blue-ish door into our own personal Tardis for a Doctor Who party. But, the door has taken a beating and is ready for repainting. I’ve painted the inside of my house before, but never have done any exterior work. It’s gotta be different with some important steps to follow. And should I paint it a true Tardis blue? Or a forrest green, like The Husband has requested… decisions, decisions…

You Tube to the Rescue!

This guy had great instructions, door totally off the hinges with no hardware to tape around:

So did the people at Dunn-Edwards Paints, and they left the door on the hinges and some of the hardware on:

This video was helpful, too, another with the door on the hinges and hardware taped and providing a materials list:

OK. I’m ready to hit the paint counter and get started.