Priming the Front Door and Burning My Little Toe

Ouch!!!!!  Several days ago we were burning some branches that were too big for the yard waste paper bags and I was wearing a pair of nylon mesh sneakers without any socks.  As I was standing next to the burner barrel a hot ember fell off a burning branch and landed on my shoe.  My feet tend to be numb because of poor circulation but some times I have stinging pains in my feet so when the shoe melted and the ember started burning my toe, I didn't even look down at my foot.  Finally I said to R, "damn, my foot is killing me.  Oh s*&t!!! my shoe is on fire!"  So now I can't wear a shoe on that foot and it hurts like H E double hockey sticks.

So between my toe and windy weather, I am finally just now getting around to painting the front door.  We spent several days giving the door another good sanding and a close inspection to look for nicks and gouges that needed to be filled.  Of course we couldn't fix every imperfection and we don't want the door to look new because it isn't new, it's 89 years old.  We used two part epoxy to fill old nail holes and large cracks and glued a loose piece of wood and left it to set up over night.

Today we sanded those areas and gave the door it's first coat of primer.  The door really soaked up the primer so tomorrow I will give it another coat.  The primer is white and our final top coat will also be white so we got a sneak peak at what the door will look like when it is finished and we both love it.

The door had many many layers of paint on it when I stripped it several years ago.  In it's life time it has been white, aqua, red, dark green, and tan.  But it appears to have been red more than any other color.  The wrought iron driveway gates were red when we purchased the house.

The white door will allow the wrought iron hardware to stand out.  Of course there was the temptation to give the door a 'pop' of color but the roof is dark emerald green and the body of the house is dark grey so it limits the colors that can would work well with dark green and grey.  Red comes to mind and at one time the door was red but that just seems too Christmasy for a year around color combo.

Painting the door white will allow us to use just about any color combination of flowers.  Also, having a white door is classic for this style of home and trendy is just not us.  No chevron pillows at The Gear.

Once the door has had two top coats we will......
1. Reinstall all the wrought iron hardware i.e. door knocker and large straps.
2. R will clean and adjust the lockset and reinstall that and the thumblatch door handle.
3. We will install the new bronze V weatherstripping that I purchased last year for all the exterior doors.
4. Hang the new cast iron house numbers but first I need to grind off the flash and repaint.  I'm a daughter of a journeyman mold maker so when it comes to casting I'm kind of particular.

Rain is in the forecast for Sunday night so I might just be able to squeak out at least one top coat before then.  We haven't had much rain but we have had a lot of wind which makes raking leaves nearly impossible.

Finally some spring color.  These are little tiny daffodils.  I could only find two tulip buds that the deer have missed but I'm sure they will get them on the next go around.