Painting the Outside Door

Well, our back door is technically a side door but it's the most used entrance to our house. Our house is brick but the side porch is all white look and I like the all white look, however between super alien green pollen and red dirt, nothing in Georgia stays very white for long around here!  This door was pretty beat up and needing a new coat of paint and for the past year I had envisioned a super dark navy blue almost black paint on it.  However when I got samples I ended up with like 50 shades of blue ranging from that super dark navy to light robins egg blue.  This color was in the mid-light range and an awesome friend who is much more decisive than me helped me narrow it down to a much more manageable decision.  Then I got my final opinion from my daughter and her buddy to decide between the final 2 paint colors.  This was not a time consuming project.  We did our homeschool in the morning and after lunch I started this project. The drying time takes the longest which was less than 2 hours and during that time I was doing laundry and playing with the kids.  Kind of instant gratification....that's my kind of DIY!

Here's a picture of the Opal Silk paint sample card with some of our eggs.

This color reminds me of my favorite blue-green eggs that my Easter egg layers leave me in their nest.  It's called Opal Silk by BEHR.  I bought a quart of exterior satin enamel (I didn't want a shiny glossy door) in the BEHR Primium Plus ULTRA Stain-Blocking Paint & Primer in One. Along with a small paint tray, small roller and 1 1/2 inch brush.

BEFORE:

This is after already going over it with an electric palm sander to smooth out and remove and marks, it cleaned the door pretty good.  I didn't sand in the molding, just whatever I could get with the palm sander.  Then I panicked and though maybe I should leave the door white after wanting to paint it for over a year...but I decided to ignore the self-doubt and hurry up and do it! 😅

I pinned up plastic to keep the door clean while working but I ended up taking it down because my cats were driving me nuts pouncing on it and making it fall down.  It's still winter, but we had a warm day in the 60s and I didn't have to worry about bugs landing on the wet paint so I ended up tearing the plastic down before even getting to painting.  But it's a good idea if bugs are out to keep your paint job from getting messed up. I placed a piece of cardboard under the door to work on and keep my hardwood floors clean.

I removed the handle and deadbolt and taped around the glass window frames, I didn't have painters tape and just used white masking tape.

I think I was supposed to remove hardware before sanding but it didn't really matter.  Just make sure to really wipe down the door nice and good to remove any dust before painting.

I looked up on Lowes how to paint a front door and it's pretty straightforward and did not take long. Less than an hour and I only painted the exterior face of the door.  I figured if I liked it I could later paint the entire door if I wanted to have that cute color on the inside as well. https://www.lowes.com/projects/paint-stain-and-wallpaper/paint-wooden-front-door/project

First stirred the paint and poured into my small paint tray. Starting with my paint brush, I painted the small wooden cross sections that separate the 4 window panes and the inside trim around that area.

Then using paintbrush, painted the mounding on the bottom half of the door.  (Photos taken after)

Using the small paint roller, I then applied paint over the 2 front panels that are part of the mounding on the bottom half, then before it dried, lightly dragged my paintbrush down virtically following the natural grain of the wood to leave natural paint brush marks.  

Bottom of door you can see the wood grain/paint is vertical in middle and then cut off by a seam created when you go across horizontally on the bottom of door.

Next, use the paint roller across the middle section of the door and then did the same thing, lightly pulled the paint brush across to smooth and leave the lines going horizontally following the grain of the wood. And repeated that method along the very top of the door above the window.

You can see the paint brush marks creating the grain after using the paint roller. This is along the long outside sections of the door that go top to bottom.

Last I used the paint roller down both sides of the door from top to bottom and then again, went over with the paintbrush leaving vertical lines following the grain of the wood from top to bottom.  I didn't end up taping the sides of the door with tape because with the paint roller it went on so clean and did not wrap around the edges at all.  Just be careful when going over with the paintbrush to not flick the sides, but if you do, you can quickly wipe any unwanted paint off with a damp rag. 

See how I did not paint the outside edges of the door.

I got some paint on that little piece of weather stripping on the bottom so I just painted the whole thing...looks better anyways because it was stained the Georgia red clay color and looked dirty once I actually noticed it.

I let it dry for 1-2 hours with door left open and then applied a second coat, repeating the steps above which did not take long, 45 minutes at most. The paint was dry within 1-2 hours and I just left the door open the rest of the day even though it was dry before shutting it.

I carefully removed the tape on the Windows, peeling it off pulling at an angle towards the inside of the window.  If you pull the tape off without cautions sometimes if the paint is still a little soft, it can pull of the paint around the edges of the tape.  There were a few spots of paint that got on the window but I just quickly scratched it off with my fingernail.

  It's been a few days now and still looks great :). I went to Charleston with my daughter for the weekend for a gymnastics meet and the hubby text me saying how good the door looks and that I should paint the door on our screen porch that color and our basement doors too! I'm not sure if I'll do that or just leave it to this one cheerful pop of color but we'll see. 

Sunny afternoon

Rainy afternoon

I painted this the day before going to Charleston and with this color on my mind, I was loving this house on rainbow row that I had to snap a picture of.  Maybe I will paint this someday!  Blue green turquoise love going on!!!!

Pea Gravel Courtyard Patio Makeover

BEFORE

It was a weedy mud pit that just always looked like a mess, and the small concrete patio that was by the doors was pretty stained and not looking too attractive either.  I love the look and sound of pea gravel underfoot AND it's a lot cheaper, easier, faster and more forgiving for a DIY patio than most other options.  I do love flagstone and beautiful hardscaping, but I LOVE the charm of the pea gravel so it was an easy route to go.  The pavers that line the pea gravel patio were reused from the messy, weedy ugly path that was going through this area.  There were lining the path and it was filled with large jagged white rock.

After 2 truckloads of deco pea gravel was dumped on our driveway...

AFTER

Less than 24 hours later, Tyler and I had laid out landscape cover and he wheelbarrow-ed down all 2.5 tons of gravel himself!  Still need to do some things down there, it's pretty bare but we love the look down there so much better!

Deck Makeover

So after the chicken coop project got finished, next up was the deck.  It was a pretty big project with the power washing and painting, more than you might think.  I did help with some of the painting but who am I kidding, Hubby did most of it...he finished the work while the kids and I were away visiting family so it was nice to come home to a finished project!  Not to mention he cleared out a bunch of the ugly tree stumps in the yard and thoroughly cleaned out the mini van! thanks babe!

Anyways, I'm loving the new deck, it feels so much cleaner with the fresh paint and stain vs the weathered wood that was stained green from the spring pollen with curling boards...hubs got that all fixed up now.  At first we were going to just stain the deck all one color with either a clear stain or something subtle but then the deck had these copper caps on the posts and they weren't that noticeable against the weathered wood and if we did a brown stain all over I didn't think it would do much justice so I went hmmmmmm.....for about an hour as hubby tapped his foot waiting for me to decide so he could go to Home Depot to get supplies and decided to go ahead and paint the deck rails an off white and then do Thompson Waterseal stain in Acorn Brown I think it was the semi-transparent.

Here's the before and after.

at first we were thinkinf just doing a clear coat sealer to protect it but keep the natural wood look but I made a quick decision (not something I normally do!) and went with it...We both like how it turned out

Next phase? This last picture reminds me we should probably get around to adding some deck skirting so we aren't looking under at our crap we store underneath, but at the end of the day...it's just one of those things that ain't the most important in the world so for now I'm just going to enjoy a finished project and having the chicken coop and deck getting protected off the Hubby's project list and just hang out!  Those were 2 projects that seemed unfinished for a long time, not because of him, just because they take a lot of time and he just does what he can when time permits.

Easy Craft: Weekly Menu Planner

Weekly Menu Planner and Organizer

Here is a fast, easy and useful craft project you can whip up in no time! I didn't come up with the idea, we made these with our MOPS group, here is the one I made. We just took your average boring folder, you probably have one lying around, and worked some magic with cute paper and a glue stick! We added 2 protective plastic sleeves so you can reuse the calender, menu planner and grocery list (by the aisle) by writing on the outside of the plastic sleeve with a dry erase marker if you choose.

We made sure we used folders that had the pockets on the inside flaps so in the front pocket, you can store your coupons and on the back pocket you can store your take-out menus.

Here is where you can print out the calender, planner and grocery list for your super cute planner:

Free Calendar Template
Free Weekly Meal Planner & Monthly Menu Planner Templates
Printable Grocery List by the Aisle

And some other handy resources to get the job done...

Frugal Recipe Index - might come in handy while trying to plan those meals
Frugal Family Recipes Blog
Free Printable Coupons (Coupon Mom)

One Small Change

I came across this challenge on Hip Mountain Mama called One Small Change. The challenge is to make one change each month leading up to Earth Day and blog about it. That's just one change to focus on each month, I think I can do that and am really excited to do it too!
My change for this month is to recycle the enormous stash of plastic grocery store bags we have hiding under the sink and get some reusable shopping bags to use from now on. That will be my first change for the challenge.

Some of the things we have already done before starting the challenge is quit buying bottled water, driving less by planning the week out, driving a fuel efficient car, keeping the thermostat low, printing double sided and letting my daughter use scrap paper for arts and crafts projects, and maybe some others but that's off the top of my head. We could definitely be more green.

Oh yeah, and I just remembered, I have a How-To article that I wrote fairly recently that goes right along with this project: How to Fight Global Warming Through Diet