List Schmist.

Yeah, I went totally off-list today.  So much for having a list then, right?!  This project was on that secret mental list, though today, just so I could have the satisfaction of crossing it off, I wrote it on the actual list.  I know, I'm a dork.

The front door exterior.

It would not be my first choice of doors in general, overall, for a slew of reasons, but it's here and doors are expensive, so, I thought I'd paint it.  Since I needed to return the spray paint I picked up for our new patio chairs, I figured I'd pick up door paint in its place.

I asked Mike, who generally doesn't always have an opinion about house stuff, but does have a great inherent sense of design, what color he'd like for the front door.  It's his house too, though he has proffered many a time that I can do whatever I want.  I wanted to include him in this decision.

He said dark green.  Not a color I might ordinarily choose by way of not being a big green fan, but he said for some reason he has always wanted a dark green front door.  Who am I to refuse?

I really don't know what's up with this door anyway.  It's not the original door but it's not a new door sooooo, either the flipper took it from another project/house/stole it and installed it here or picked it up in an alley somewhere.  I'm betting alley.  It's beat up and dirty with unremovable dirt.  Oh and I have scrubbed.  Many times.  Scrubby scrubby scrubby.  Nothing.  Nice, right?

It's not often I use brush-on oil based paint and despite all the years I've been painting things which has been a lot of years and a lot of painted things, I still suck at using oil based paints.

Yeah.  Needs a second coat, clearly, but because oil paints take so long to dry, it'll have to be another day.  And maybe another type of brush, maybe a small roller to get it even.  That's always my problem, getting the paint even.  I suck at brushing oil paint, heh.

After I put this paint on I realized oh, well, huh.  That puts a kink in my plan to stop by Twitchy's for more wood for the pantry floor.  Rats!

Maybe it was the fumes, maybe it's me, I dunno, but that's when the day veered off into crazy town territory.

We dislike the awkward, clunky, unwelcoming, pretty well unnecessary security door.  Uh oh, right?

Since I was painting the main door dark hunter green, having the white security door glaring in front of it defeats the whole purpose of painting the main door.  Yep.  I opted to paint the security door too.  Crazy town.

As the hinges are buried, I couldn't get just the door off to paint it.  Sigh.  Taking the whole door frame out to paint it was not an option for me today.  Nor will it ever be until we replace this door with something more friendly.

Staring at it from the inside, the thought of hand brushing the paint on all those itty bitty parts made my head hurt.  The thought of applying a second coat on all those itty bitty parts made me queasy.  After analyzing the door and all its parts, out came the screw gun and off came all the interior parts.

Thankfully I've toted a roll of brown kraft paper around with me all these years so I papered up the door from the inside, then headed out to spray paint it with the matching color spray paint I bought.

So ok yes, I did kinda sorta a little bit possibly premeditate doing this.  I didn't expect it'd be a train wreck though.  Despite cleaning the door, the paint went haywire.

And despite my best efforts, the spray paint went everywhere.

Ugh.  This sucks.  Ugh.  Ok.  Can't figure out why this is happening unless I needed to clean more thoroughly.  Ugh.  Sob.  Ok.  Let it dry, I thought, then come back.  Maybe the pitted areas will seal up.

In the mean time, the crazy town ship sailed again and I painted the front steps, off-list.  There's soooo much iron work that needs painting it's ridiculous but I figured if I could at least get the steps painted and if I can't get to any more of it, at least the steps will be protected through the winter.  And so now they are.

I did end up talking to a neighbor from across the street for a bit, or at least more so than I have in the past.  We affectionately call him Sweeper as he is out every day, several times a day, sweeping his sidewalk, neighboring sidewalks, and a large portion of the city street.  Every day.  Yes, even in winter.  With a little red plastic broom.

He's lived here for 30 years and keeps a close watch on the immediate area as he has family living in about three or four of the houses around him.  While we do ever so slightly get a kick out of and shake our heads at his OCD sweeping activities, we appreciate it and him and all he does by making his watchful presence well known.

He asks about Hailey when we see him as he saw me out front with her one day shortly after her surgery.  He was visibly painfully bewildered at her missing leg and is genuinely concerned for and worried about her well-being.  Long story short, we like our neighbors.

But back to the door.

Even after letting it dry, then a second then a third then a fourth then who knows how many more sprays, it still yielded this mottled look.  Soooo, I thought I'd convince myself the door wants to go for that hammered look and I will call it done.

After the second or third coat?  Can't remember now.

Lots of touch up to manage, but if I don't get to it in the next two weeks, it's not the end of the world.  We rarely see the front of our house and it's not too particularly horrible nor offensive to the neighbors.

If you look hard enough, you can see Hailey evaluating my handiwork.

No, I didn't paint the frames of the interior parts but the white isn't bothering me.  Yet.  I'm looking forward to shutting the front door and seeing how it looks from the sidewalk.

Oh!  Ice machine is working again, finally, for now anyway, and since I have to dump the first batch, I'll revisit that DIY dyed art project again, see how that pans out.  I'm thinking of stitching some dimensional yarn elements into it when it's done too, a la macrame-ish, we'll see.

Off to scurry about and make dinner super early for eating on the fly.  Phish is in town starting tonight for a three night stint so that's our weekend!