Phew! It’s been a long time! With my Middle School Ministry and Grad classes in full swing, this poor blog has been put on the back burner.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been working on our home! Our front door needed a lot of love with it’s water stains, too small 1950’s lights and random door ornaments. (See the teddy bear, butterfly, and “N”?)
First thing, I removed all of the ornaments and cleaned the storm door and wood door. This is difficult to see, but it is much less cluttered looking without it! That’s Jimmy and Jay working hard back in March to clear out that section of weeds, very old hoses, and even some garden trinkets.
The next big thing was the lighting. The current lights were way to small and way to old. We have a really great Habitat for Humanity Re-store here in Lynchburg and in Roanoke. When my Mom was in town we found 3 very old Brass outdoor wall mount lamps for $10! They were filled with old bugs and the finish was terrible, but we saw something else with them.
I took them apart, scrubbed them down, primed them with one coat of $1 car metal primer from the Re-store and two coats of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze, and this is how they turned out! (The pictures from the process are nowhere to be found, sorry!)
The difference is TREMENDOUS! I love the new lights, and for about $11 each, you can’t beat that upgrade! Since the new ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze lights clashed with the old brass door hardware I decided to spray paint that also with the same cheap metal primer and two coats of ORB. I removed the door knocker, but spray painted to handle and knob without removing it from the door.
The door handle was more difficult however since I obviously didn’t want to paint the door. Yes, it is ghetto and speaks of my laziness, but i really didn’t want to remove that knob! It’s not shown in the picture, but before spray painting, I actually put a spare key into the keyhole so as not to get any paint in the inside.
Well it worked out wonderfully, you can’t see the door handle too well here but you get the point I hope! I can’t believe how much of a difference some spray paint, new lights, and a flag made!
We also added an American flag, which not only adds some color and dimension, but shows much needed respect and homage to our freedom. You can also see that our Hydrangeas filled out a little :).
Now onto the fun “hello yellow” part! The water stains are SO obvious on the original 1957 door, so until we can afford to upgrade it into this century, we painted it…this color!
Pretty bright huh? It’s Valspar’s Full Sun EB1-1 Eddie Bauer Home collection exterior Semi-gloss finish. Since the door is so damaged, it unfortunately did not come out as sleek and shiny as we wanted, but the color is still fun.
It took two coats of primer and three coats of paint, we could’ve put on a fourth for sure.
This is a little different view and angle, but the difference is pretty amazing.
We of course have plenty of plans for that tiny space, but it is such an important part of a home. We want our home to be approachable and welcoming.
To do list for the porch:
- Clean and stain the concrete
- Remove concrete walkway and lay pavers or slate
- Add big flower pots/urns
- Buy a new front door and spray paint or buy new storm door
- Buy new hardware for front door, something bigger
- Build a small pergola over concrete porch
- Completely re-design landscaping
- Use faux stone or Vinyl siding to cover up green stone
“Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and profitable to those who see the sun. For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.” Ecclesiastes 7:11-12
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