Break on through to the other side

So you know how I was all, "I'm gonna paint my entry way!" and you were all, "All right dude, but make sure you paint those doors first," and then I was all, "I'm not going to paint my entry way when it's SUNNY outside!" and then you (or maybe my friend Pancakes) was all, "Hmm, what about this OTHER blue, and yes, you DEFINITELY need to paint your doors, and happy birthday, here is a Groupon for paint!"

ARE YOU CAUGHT UP? 

I don't know why I got it in my head that I needed to paint doors this weekend, but when I get something in my head IT IS FIRMLY LODGED IN THERE. Also! It turned out that I was NOT going to spend all day Saturday at a volleyball tournament like I thought (perhaps I should check my calendar once in a while!) and ALSO it turned out that Jack and Molly were going to spend Saturday through Monday (that would be TOMORROW) with Phillip's parents. Free and clear weekend + firmly lodged idea + 80 degree forecast = opportune weekend for door painting. 

I didn't think it was going to be EASY, Internet. I have painted enough things to know that even though I have painted enough things, there is always something that is a drag. I also didn't think it was going to be quick. I DID think it would be relatively painless (which is sort of different from easy) and CHEAP. I was going through the neatly labeled cans of paint in our garage (I swear, we bought this house from clones of Phillip's neatly labeling parents) and one of them was an almost-full gallon of trim paint. Which is sort of what I was thinking I would need for painting doors. A-HA!

So! Here I had an almost-gallon of paint. In addition I already had, in my not-so-neatly-labeled box o' painting supplies: brushes, rollers, tape, paint trays, and half a gallon of primer. I thought I would need another gallon of both paint and primer, but then, THEN I WAS SET! Right? 

Okay so all the above was the In Theory part of the post. I will now give you the In Practice part. 

I took off the three interior doors in the entry way and laid them out flat (propped on paint sample jars) in the garage. In doing so I realized that 1) these doors are TRULY HIDEOUSLY CRAPPY and 2) NONE of them are the same width. I went around measuring every door in my house and I swear to you, NONE OF THE DOORS ARE THE SAME WIDTH. 

They're just hollow core wood doors, I'm sure they've been hanging here since the house was built in 1988, they are bruised and marked up and if they were ever finished, like with a stain or varnish or SOMETHING, they are not ANYMORE. Out of all the doors I painted, the only one I really needed to sand/degloss was Emma's door. Why that one was shiny I have no clue. 

Oh, so that part was easy. I had some deglosser left over from my cabinet painting project and I just rubbed that stuff on and no problemo. Then I rolled on the first coat of primer and DUUUUUDE. It was like the door just sucked up all the primer with a straw. It was like maybe I'd SPILLED a bit of primer and then carelessly rubbed it in. So. TWO coats of primer. 

In the meantime I was deglossing and priming the back of the garage door and the entry way closet, which I'd chosen to leave on the hinges. I only had to do one side, so it wasn't a big deal, and I just taped up the hardware and the wall edges. But that was enough to make me happy I'd Done Things The Right Way and taken the other doors off the hinges. SO MUCH EASIER to paint when the surface is horizontal and nothing's in the way. 

Anyway, this was taking forever because it was taking forever to DRY. I was going crazy. Seriously. Those firmly lodged ideas are not known for their patience. So of course I didn't wait long enough in between coats and the doors I hung today are a bit tacky still BUT OH WELL THEY ARE PAINTED THE END. 

Today! TODAY the firmly lodged idea reminded me that I had one day left to paint the rest of the doors and if THIS is how I was going to do it I was never going to get it done. So around 7:30 in the morning I was on my deck preparing a Door Painting Assembly Line. 

Also I needed to buy more paint. OBVS. In the morning I sent Phillip for another can of Kilz. In the afternoon I drove to the suburbs, the location of my Paint Groupon, for another can of trim paint. AND IT WAS CLOOOOOOOOOOSED!!!

Maybe I was a TEEEEENY BIT IRRITATED, Internet. This paint store is about 20 minutes away. Do you know how many paint stores are within 2 minutes of my house? I was feeling very foot stompy about this, and also confused because I still only had ONE DAY to finish those doors and now I had to buy a totally different kind of paint. 

Okay, so here is where Elizabeth is going to cluck her tongue and shake her head. I just went to Home Depot and bought Behr semi-gloss interior paint. In white. I didn't even tint it. OH YES I DID. I did not even BOTHER going to the fancy pants paint store and asking the fancy pants paint store employees what sort of fancy pants paint should go on my doors. I was ALREADY a smidge (a mile) overbudget!

So do I regret it? 

I have one more coat to do on my last 7 doors. It hasn't fully dried so I'm not ENTIRELY sure, but it appears the finish is less smooth and glossy than the three doors from yesterday (Parker Paint). I also ROLLED it on, which I know is not super kosher, but I knew that going into it. (If I brush painted 10 doors plus 2 outer doors plus one closet I WOULD HAVE GONE INSANE. Also, I'd probably only be on my third door.) So. It could be better, is what I'm saying. They are not perfectly smooth, glossy, and blemish free. 

THAT SAID. Did I mention that these were the crappiest doors in the universe? Like, BEYOND CRAPPY. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. So it's kind of like I still have crappy doors, but now they are WHITE crappy doors and this is a trillion percent improvement. They look really good and the only person who even REMOTELY cares about the finish on those doors is me. And you know what principle I fully embraced on this project? DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT! DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT!

I'm going to slowly change out the brass knobs and handles for silver ones. (Expensive!) And one day I would REALLY like to put trim around the doors. We have awesome thick white trim around all the windows but NOTHING around the doors and it really looks undone to me. But that's a DIY project I have no idea how to do, so that's for another day. 

So it wasn't painless, it was more expensive than I planned, and waiting for the doors to dry PLUS flipping them over to do the other side is a royal pain in the butt. But it wasn't HARD, either. I'm not sure I would say it was easy, but the actual painting of the doors was the easiest part. (Not that you WANT to do nine hundred coats because your doors are sponges, but at least it was EASY TO DO.)

Jack and Molly come home tomorrow afternoon and everything needs to be painted. I might not have enough paint to do finish the front door tonight, but all the interior doors will be in their places, waiting for Phillip to help me hang them tomorrow night before he leaves on a business trip Tuesday morning aaaauuuuugggghhhh

THUS CONCLUDES A BLOG POST ENTIRELY ABOUT PAINT I AM SO SORRY

P.S. do you know how many BUGS died in my paint? That I thought were specks of dirt? And brushed off? Except it SMEARED? OMGGGG

 

Comments

[HereWeGoAJen]

You rock! That is a lot of work!

[lindsay]

I am so impressed! I can't handle doing more than one door at a time so we have a mixture right now. My dream is to have all white doors by the end of 2012 but Rick has different dreams. Sadness.

[Susie]

"Done is better than perfect" is my life mantra. It has gotten me through grad school, and my career thus far. It is scribbled on a post it note, taped to my monitor at work. IT IS SO TRUE.

[Carrie]

I promise to stop and admire each and every door on my next visit. Good job!

[craftyashley]

Might I suggest spraypainting the knobs instead of buying new ones? http://www.thepennyparlor.com/2010/08/wonder-of-spray-paint.html

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

Wow!! Go you! We have a bunch of very crappy doors, too, and I look at them sometimes in wonder at just HOW did someone think they were acceptable??? Glad (sort of?) to know my doors are not alone in their crappiness.

[Crystal]

Just because something is easy to do does not mean it is not very time consuming or inexpensive. I'm so happy for you that you were able to get the whole project done! I am very happy when I am able to finish anything that is *supposed* to be easy.

[Jesabes]

Now I want pictures of the doors in place! (Please do more work for my benefit!)

[Ellen Hoffman]

I can't wait to see the doors! What blue did you decide to go with?

[Deanna@techdealsmag]

I admire your resilience. It is not easy to take on tasks like that and you appear to be going like a steam engine.

I smiled when you mentioned the bugs. I've had it happen to me too. What do they think anyway- that it's food? I blame them for their own deaths.

The new knobs will definitely improve the overall look and feel of the doors so they will be worth the investment. Much less, I am sure that since you want it done, you won't rest until you get it done.

The trim is a good idea as well. Good luck with your future projects.