Doors and Date-Night Jeans

"Hope is wishing something would happen.  Faith is believing something will happen.  Courage is making something happen."
-Unknown

What I'm reading:  "It Starts with Food"
What I'm writing:  Not much right now.  Focusing (occasionally...) on my first romance novel

A few days ago I was pulling weeds and thinking about what to post.  I'd already come up with my first post, kind of an introduction and mission statement, but it was a little serious and heavy.  Where is the fun, lady?  It occurred to me:  I am about the same age as my house!  It was built in 1977 and I was born in 1979.  Maybe I should stop referring to my house as "older!"  Sometimes I still feel like I'm in high school, although a few quick bounces on the trampoline with my kids quickly remind me that it's been a while.  Honestly, I have no issues with getting older, per se- I was thrilled to turn thirty.  I had a great time in my twenties and accomplished many things.  I looked at my thirtieth birthday as a milestone and a gateway to an awesome new decade.  And it has been.  I feel like I've finally started to figure out who I really am and who I really want to be.  And that all of those things are within my grasp.

I've felt a new attachment to my house since I put its age and need for improvement into perspective.  There's not a thing wrong with this place just as it is, but like all of us, I'm sure it's itching for something a little new, and a little fresh! Girlfriend needs a pair of date-night jeans.  And we started with the front doors.

This is our front entryway from the outside.  Most of the time we only use one door, but the other door does unlatch.  My husband digs the double doors.  He's Mr. Practicality, and when we were moving in, this wide entryway made moving a breeze.  Well, I should never refer to moving a piano as a "breeze," but it was much easier than trying to squeeze the thing through a standard 36" door!  If he was the kind of guy who kissed inanimate objects, these doors would have got the love.

But... they're old.  Kind of outdated.  The storm doors had those funky decorative grids and the inside wood doors...

Really kind of cool, with the decorative carving and the metal scrolly-thing around the doorknob.  The varnish was cracked and peeling and the wood was faded.  I'm pretty sure this was the original finish.  Replacing these doors is not a top priority right now, and they are still very solid and in good shape.  But they are the first thing you see when you visit the house and it says OUTDATED.  As in, that haircut your aunt has had for thirty-five years that was super trendy back when she was seventeen.  Kind of like this:

So we decided to work with what we had.  Yeah, baby, saving money and making the retro fresh!

Here is one of the doors laid out in our garage, in the middle of a good sanding.  You can see the carving better here, as well as the bad finish.  One thing I learned from this project:  Your cute little Black & Decker Mouse Sander has a little attachment perfect for sanding all the nooks and crannies of the carving, but it does NOT need your help and you do NOT need to push it down onto the door for more sanding pleasure.  Use your fancy new CrossFit muscles somewhere else, because putting that much pressure on your sander will cause it to have a nervous breakdown.  Okay, literal breakdown, and I had to replace the sander.  Anyhoo....  Next the doors got a lovely new coat of primer.

Husband even put on his happy face for this project!  We applied the primer with a paintbrush and it worked great.  Finally, the paint.  I am a believer that a new coat of paint can fix just about anything.  I was looking for a good, deep cherry red.  The red we got ended up a little brighter than I expected, but I love it.  I unfortunately did not take a picture of this step, but Steve used a little sprayer from Harbor Freight with his air compressor and sprayed the door.  We decided that was the best way to get an even coat in all of the fancy carving.

While Steve painted the door, I removed the extra grills from the storm doors.  It was easy- they were just attached with screws so they came right off.  (Sad note, and marital tip:  Make sure you stash things like extra grills from a storm door in a safe place if you are planning on using them for another crafty project, because they may become victims to Husband's periodic urges to clean the garage.  Le Sigh.)  Husband removed the doors, I took out the glass, and I used just regular black spray paint to give the frames a makeover.  We also spraypainted the same, original doorknobs.  We debated for a long time about that metal scrolly-thing and in the end, decided to spraypaint it too.

New, sleek storm doors back up, doors painted and re-installed...

 I love the sleek, simple look of the storm doors with no grills or decoration!  I can't tell you how many people have asked us if we bought new doors.

This gives you a better idea of how the hardware looks.  I was really torn about whether to keep the scrolly-thing (yes, that is its official term) but Husband (not his official name) really loved it and now I do too.  I think it looks cool and it keeps some of the original unique charm of the house.  The 70s were not really my favorite decor years but I think even in updating, you have to respect what a house is.  This will never be a Victorian-era cottage, no matter how much bead board I install.

Here's a view from inside:

The doors are great.  I still want to replace them at some point, but that's mostly because I want more interior light and these are solid wood.  But until that project moves up the list, I love my bright red doors.  They will be getting another makeover soon because we are painting the exterior of the house, but the hard work of sanding and priming is done.  A new coat of paint and we're in business!

I smile every time a friend stops by and says "I love what you've done to these doors!"  A lot of visitors don't even come inside, so it's important to me that the entryway is inviting and attractive.

And I like to think my house appreciates looking pretty.  If these doors are her date-night jeans, I guess she needs a statement necklace next, right?