And here is yet another small fraction of the house that I’m not ashamed of.

The side door project is now complete.  Fully complete.  Typically, any project I do has some residual “punch list” items that I never get to, such as touch up painting or recessing the nail heads and filling them with wood putty or stupid stuff like that.  But this project is one of those rare gems that I saw through to final completion.  If only I got to invoice someone for my troubles.

Anyway, it is FANTASTICALLY better than the old door.  Just look down a bit and you’ll see the Before Picture.  This is a door we see and use every day.  It welcomes us home from wherever our day took us, and it begins our journey into the outside world (or just to take out the trash).  The old door was a cadaver, barely clinging to its rusty hinges, begging to be put out of its misery.  Our new door is vibrant and cheerful.  We’re very, very happy with it.

Here is the door being painted (which took about nine hours total, I think this pic was taken during hour three).  We painted the inside only and left the outside stained wood.  There’s a lot of detail in this door for the accent color to paint.  We used two colors, a deep purple with a sort of lipstick accent color.

From the outside, more stately and less whimsy, but still a very attractive door.

And here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming, as I continue my way around the interior of the house, ripping out paneling and stair treads like there’s no tomorrow.  Those stairs, and the closet underneath, are going to be a major challenge.  I’m just doing the landing right now, a mere two stair treads worth of stairs, and it is very slow going.