Curb Appeal Face Lift

Day #14

The exterior wood around our front door had seen better days.

It was partly rotten.

I was watering our plants last spring and decided to hose off some dirt from the wood trim around our front door and part of it blew off from the pressure of a garden hose.

It looked like our house was missing a tooth.

A FRONT tooth.

So we told our builder, Paul, to add it to the list of things to do.

It finally got done earlier this fall in between many other projects Paul is in the middle of, so I offered to do the painting myself.

I went to go get exterior paint from our hardware store and a guy with a dog said he was too busy to help me but pointed to one can and said that would work.

I had no reason not to trust him.

Other than his error in judgement 

of bringing a dog to work.

The dog looked miserable.

I brought the can home and it looked like milky water. We shook and shook it and it didn’t look any better. I tried painting with it and it wasn’t covering.

Monte took it back that evening and the dog guy was still there (so was the dog). Monte asked to return the paint and try something else.

The guy opened the paint, looked at it and said it was fine but just need to be shaken.

Monte brought it back home and it looked no different.

In the can or on the wood trim.

So Monte went to a different hardware store and asked them what was wrong with the paint. They didn’t know but said it was not right.

They made no new recommendations.

So. Frustrating.

I was on a bit of a deadline since the lights were being installed the next day and that process would go a lot smoother without wet paint.

The next morning I went to Lowe’s right after I dropped Ellie off at school. I explained the whole situation.

The rotten wood,

the new wood,

the dog guy,

the yucky paint,

and my urgency to get the right paint RIGHT AWAY.

Without even seeing the paint I was using, the guy knew the problem.

I was sold a base paint that was meant to be tinted/mixed with another paint before using.

So basically I was painting straight semi-gloss onto my trim.

I could’ve hugged the guy at Lowe’s!

But I also wanted to swing by the hardware store on the way home and let them know Dog Guy didn’t know a thing about paint and probably should seek employment elsewhere immediately.

And promptly refund me my $21.95

But honestly, I didn’t have the time.

This was a shot of my poor paint job with straight semi-gloss. This was prepainted wood.

Yay! No more missing tooth!
 Nigel is obviously thrilled.

As I was up on a big ladder hurriedly painting the trim before the lights were to be installed that afternoon, I learned some things.

1.  I have friendly neighbors. So friendly that when they saw 

me up on a ladder painting as they drove by, they honked.

2.  I jumped and almost fell off the ladder every. single. time. someone honked. The bad part is that 

THEY NEVER WOULD’VE KNOWN IF I FELL. 

They would’ve already turned off our street by the time I hit the bushes. No one would’ve heard my muffled moans.

3.  I never EVER will honk at someone up on a ladder painting.

No more weird molding.

We decided on using two lights instead of one overhead.

I really wanted to use the space above the door for new house numbers.

 Our old house numbers were taken down during the construction process.

We have been a source of frustration for the 

pizza delivery guy for months.

We’d hand write “1481" on a piece of paper and tape it to our storm door so deliveries could find us.

We did the same thing for first few bible study meetings and prayer groups.

I used the old curtains from the dining room/office for a drop cloth. 

Here’s the finished product:

Now, we need to pick out and order a new front door.