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| Close-up of ugly door. Close-up of blogger’s old promo pic. |
P.J. loves it when I start a new weekend project. No really, he just adores it. What’s not to love? Go on, honey (he says), why on earth would I prefer to sit here and pound through episodes of Firefly? It would be much nicer (he agrees) to help you prep, clean, facilitate, and be the sounding board for all of your ideas and/or misplaced anger. And even though my preferred color and state is white paint/unadorned walls (he acknowledges), I can totally get on board with a Mayan red door and Cajun red walls. Since you’ve already begun.
I’ll admit it. I blindsided him with this weekend’s project. But the front foyer and door had been staring me in the face with their ugliness for close to three years. And we’re not talking just outdated or just a state of disrepair.
It was both. A lot of both.
The foyer was a yellowish hue, punctuated with poorly sanded holes, poorly covered holes, and smears of pink handprinty-type things. (And/or faded bloodstain handprinty-type things. Nothing surprises me anymore.) The door was chipped, water-stained, and rather warped “original” wood residing in a chipped, rusted, brownish frame.
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| Super old pic of Nora. Super discolored foyer. |
You know how, sometimes, things are so bizarrely ugly and impossible to deal with that your brain actually stops seeing them? That’s the only way I can explain how this entry point into our home lasted like this for so long. (Unless you factor in exhaustion. And laziness.)
Well, the fog finally lifted on Saturday morning and I had to do something. So I ran to Home Depot. Bought new edgers, new paint (Mayan red for said door and Eurolinen for said foyer- the latter of which is just a fancy word for…cream.)
While there, I racked up a two hundred dollar bill for…absolutely indeterminate items, but that’s an entirely different story. And issue. (And credit card.)
Once home, I realized that we were down to one sole paint roller. And my project would require [at least] two. This revelation- while potentially explosive- was tempered by P.J.’s cautious suggestion that we could make a run on the following day and just focus on the door for Saturday. Whatta guy.
So I sanded. And wood-filled. And scraped. (And removed Mayan Red paint from an eight-foot radius. Because I become positively Jackson Pollock-esque when I renovate.) I had literally no fear about turning the front door into an eye-catching thing of awesome…as opposed to its current life as an eye-catching time capsule from the 1970s [after some natural disaster had occurred].
And you know what? It looks awesome. There wasn’t much I could do about the rather dated diamond shape window facing the street, but the door’s new deep mahogany color at least says- Hey, we’re trying.
I felt quite proud. Prouder still once I managed to finagle the doorknob and dead bolt back into place. Whimsical poll: Do you know what makes a doorknob incredibly difficult to secure? Previously stripped screws and/or painted hardware. COME ON, PEOPLE/PAST OWNERS. I AM NOT A MAGICIAN.
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| Close-up of door at night (in incredibly poor lighting.) No artistic blog awards, here. |
The next day- once the paint rollers were secured- I began the spackling and sanding and priming and painting of the foyer. It was a time of discovery. For instance, I discovered that the wall underneath had previously been teal.
This part was really easy. In fact, at one point I proposed marriage to my paint edgers. (P.J. yelled from the other room- You can HAVE her!)
Then, I touched up the trim and baseboards with white paint. (See, P.J.? Compromise.) However, it’s a slippery slope from painting the trim in one section and not letting it drag you all the way around the house. Because where in a home’s identical trim do you stop and say, “Nope, this area can remain dingy even though it’s attached to the other twelve feet of newly shiny baseboard?” But seriously, that conversation needs to happen, or else you’re painting the staircase railing and adding another layer of tar to the roof.
But it was when I was wrapping up the foyer/door project when I noticed the interior door frame. Perhaps, even moreso than the previously ugly door, the rusty spikes by the doorknob would act as a Feng Shui deterrent. (Maybe also burglary?) So I sanded and painted and hammered down spikes. (It’ll just take a sec, I told myself. And P.J. And Susannah, who had now been waiting for someone to just feed her since roughly 8am on Saturday morning.)
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| New door, new trim, new walls, same ugly tile, same crazy miniature person. |
During this time I was kept company by my next door neighbor’s attempt to sand a bike that may or may not have been his. The weather, however, was so warm and pleasant that I paid no heed to fact that the potentially hot ten-speed was being stripped of colors that may or may not signify a certain gang. And across the street, my neighbor blared an incredibly loud homemade mix tape that consisted solely of Linkin Park and Nickelback.
If nothing else, it really drove home that I needed to hurry up and finish this frickin’ project.
So I did.
And, at the end of the day, the walls were one color, the trim didn’t extend onto the hardwood floor, and the door actually latched. And locked. (Twice.)
You can’t be too careful.
After all, there are Nickelback-lovers right across the street.
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