Shut the Front Door!

Painting the Front Door

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(making progress or is it progress in the making?)

So when does a project ever go as planned?  Uhm, like NEVER!  I thought that choosing the front door as my first project of 2012 would be a smart, easy project to undertake.  That was my first mistake...thinking.  Ugh!  

So it started of pretty plain and simple.  Take the door off the hinges, remove all hardware and start sanding.  This went off without a hitch, for the most part.  I started using 120 grit sand paper to take the finish off but quickly realized that the people who owned our home before us must've put like 20 layers of shellac on this baby.  Jeesh!  So I busted out some 80 grit paper and went to town again.  After about an hour of this, I removed as much of the shellac as I was going to be able to.  Then it was time to start filling in all the lovely gouges that my dog left for me.  How sweet he is...

This part too went off without a hitch.  I just used some standard wood filler and slapped it on there with a putty knife.  Easy breezy lemon squeezy.  Then I let it dry and sanded it again.  I think I may have developed tendonitis in my right shoulder from using my palm sander a little too much...if you know-what-i-mean :)

So that part was finished.  The door went back on the hinges to wait for my much anticipated paint sprayer to arrive. 

The paint sprayer arrived in the middle of the week…then Mr. AKM ditched us for the weekend alas I had to WAIT (I do not wait well when I have a project that I want to finish).  So Sunday arrived and so too did Mr. AKM.  Squeals!  I danced around like a little girl that needed to go to the potty whilst I waited (impatiently) for him to take the door back down again so that I could start that painting process.

Sir grumpiness with the door, kindly (yea, right) taping the windows up for me so I can spray on the 1^st coat of primer.

His back is to the camera because he DID NOT have a smile on his face...but I was all kinds of filled with giggles and giddiness.  Can you see my paint sprayer on the tool chest to the right?  Yea...such excitement!

Whilst he was finishing the taping I busted into my paint sprayer to put it all together and get it ready for priming.  I filled up the little paint can with primer.  This is the stuff I used.  Valspar Multi-purpose primer.

I have found it to be the best stuff EVER for priming just about anything but especially slick surfaces like this (thanks previous owners for the shellac covered door).  It says that you don't have to sand...but obviously I needed to.

So back to the paint gun...I got it all put together and then realized that something wasn't right.   The spray nozzle did not look like what was in the picture. After further inspection, I realized that it was missing the air cap...the very piece that is needed to adjust the spray.  (Insert small temper tantrum here).  By this point, I no longer have a smile on my face.  I am quite devastated to be honest.  After I beat myself up for not checking the contents of the box when it arrived, I decided to move forward with priming my door the old fashioned way...brushes and foam rollers BAY-BEEE.  

So that is what it looks like as of today...but reattached to my front door.  It's a work in progress.  I have spoken to the wonderful people at GleemPaint.com about the missing piece from my paint sprayer and they are rushing it to me ASAP!  LOVE THEM!

With a hope and a prayer, this door will soon look like this...



Source

 



Stay tuned for more! I promise to show you the big reveal next week!

Do you have any projects that take longer than you expected?  I'd love to hear about them...you know misery loves company and all :)