Back Door

I varnished the porch doors after we moved in. I do pride myself on how good a varnisher I am, and the doors looked great. However, even under cover of the pool screen, our bedroom door has gotten enough sun to ruin the finish. The lowest part was missing varnish so the wood had weathered. Yes, I should have put another coat on every year, but I didn’t, so here we are.

My first thought was to give up on the varnish, since I believe I can’t hire anyone to do it as well as I can. Probably not true, but that’s my claim. I also didn’t want to have to do all the work the door would need to look good if I revarnished it: sand to bare wood in some areas, stain, sand, varnish, sand, varnish, etc. I decided to paint it a royal purple which I thought would go with the blue-gray walls. The doors under the lanai are still in good condition, and I decided the purple and the varnish would complement each other.

Then I decided it would be a waste to buy paint, when I have almost a full can of varnish and wood stain left from varnishing the front door. Let’s be somewhat environmentally conscious. But wait, I can use that on the lanai doors, who could use a coat sooner rather than later. So I went back to paint. 

After much consultation at Florida Paints, I ended up with what turned out to be more grape jelly than royal purple. Hard to translate color from a westerly facing door to fluorescent store lights. He had primer by the gallon, so off to Lowe’s. He also had advice: resend the doors with 150 grit to make them rough enough to grip the primer. And be sure the primer is tinted a deep tone, even black, so I’d get good purple coverage.

Except at Lowe’s, the counter person said she could not. Her preset colors wouldn’t allow it, and even if she went rouge, there wasn’t enough room in the can to add enough color to make the primer dark. That should have been an omen, but I was on task, so I ended up with lavender primer. 

I resanded the doors and painted the primer. Yes, definitely lavender. If I hadn’t been pressed for time, I’d left them as Easter decorations. Then the top coat. Besides being a pain to cut in, it was full of brush strokes even using my good brush. WTF? This is not my usual results. I decided to switch to a foam brush, 2 of with I had in the garage. Perhaps vintage, but on hand. Except the foam detached from its handle after about 10 strokes. I had to finish the panel, so grabbed the foam with my thumb and fingers. 

6:45 AM the next morning, I headed to Lowe’s for a bag of foam brushes. Of course I had to try the 2nd old one, and of course, the handle came off. Into the trash, and the job finished with the new ones. If I learned from my mistakes, I’d throw the rest of the bag away and buy new every time. 

The doors turned out fine. I like the color. However, all that stress added to caring for Grant’s needs, and doing my jobs and his, I was exhausted.