COVID-19 = Boredom = Projects, the front door
As we hunkered down to flatten the curve, wash our hands, and stay safe, I, like many of you started looking around my home and thinking… I could tackle that project!
It started small and simple… the front door step.
Where it all began… 
Oops! 
Almost all of the paint removed 
Clean Wood! 
Finished Door Step
Painted a soothing shade of “jail bird gray”, the step had seen better days. A previous owner had simply painted over the chipped paint, leaving lovely little crevices for dirt to reside. After removing the paint, it was obvious that the step had extended past the exterior wall a bit, but was cut flush with the wall (probably due to damage). I stained the step a bit, so the wood filler wouldn’t be seen, and put 3 coats of Sikkens, Cetol Marine, Varnish on the step for protection.
As you can see from the second photo, my heat gun was a little zealous in removing paint, and I peeled 1,0000 10 layers of paint and the original stain from the door surround, oops! I couldn’t leave the door surround looking like that! So for a few weeks after my work day concluded (and to escape the bossy four year old), I stood on a ladder, peeling paint as thick as mud from the door frame.
The real pain on this project was removing the paint, caulk (I HATE CAULK), and the odd putty that was stuck between the wood frame and the stone surround. Jackson Pollock could have painted a straighter line than these folks! It took weeks of wire brushes, paint remover, a screwdriver (my tool of choice) and a heat gun to remove all of the hideousness that bestowed this door frame.
My hope (which is usually dashed on minute three of any project) was to return stain to the frame, but after seeing the large holes and gauges from 125 years of use, I chose a sturdy exterior grade paint, Behr Premium Plus, Semi-Gloss Enamel Exterior Paint and Primer in One. I really liked working with the paint; easy brushing, easy clean up, and very few brush marks.
no paint on the stone! 
I was able to use gray exterior caulking to correct some of the gaps between the stone and wood, and not paint the stone (yes, I am amazing adequate). Now for the finishing touch…
The irony of creating a beautiful entry to my home, while everyone is sheltering in place, did not go unnoticed. And this little project led me to a much larger project, more on that next time!
