interior door project, part one.

We haven’t had a house project in a good long while. But because it’s so nice out these days, last weekend David decided to tackle one that’s been needed for the 9 1/2 years we’ve owned this house: the interior doors.

To explain why it’s needed, I give you Exhibit A:

 

 

In the boys’ wing of the house (“wing” makes it sound grander than it is; in truth it’s a very tiny hallway), we have six doors total: a bathroom, two bedrooms, three closets. And they all look like this. I think you can figure out why — someone thought it was a good idea to slap latex paint over layers of oil-based paint.

Apparently small fingers find those peeling layers irresistible and have been picking away at them for nearly a decade. And let’s be honest, who can blame them? It does look pretty satisfying. Chances are, if you’ve come for a play date, your little people have jumped in on the fun (I know this because I’ve often caught them at it). But don’t worry, my own kids are the primary culprits.

Honestly, I’ve dreamed for years of replacing all the interior doors to match our paneled doors from the master bedroom addition:

 

 

But I priced everything out, and it costs upwards of $1,000 for the primed doors and paint (not to mention labor of painting them all, which we’d do ourselves). That is just doors — not doors with new frames. For now, we have house projects that are more of a priority: namely, replacing the other half of our windows and also eventually replacing our front door.

Plus, at this point in time I can’t justify throwing out six perfectly good wooden doors simply because they don’t match my decorating vision. So we opted to give our doors a facelift with some paint and new knobs instead, for about $300 for all six (primer, paint for doors and hinges, sandpaper, knobs).

 

 

The stars aligned at the beginning of November and David had a free weekend to tackle three of the doors at a time, then he’ll work on the other three next month.

When we do house projects, the two of us divide and conquer. I wish, wish, wish I were one of those cool DIY ladies. But I’m just not. I don’t really like to paint at all or get dirty or sweaty or work with my hands at all if it’s not cooking or house plants (and I really don’t mind cleaning, I must say, when I’ve got the time for it). I’ve decided I’m at peace with that.

So my jobs are to take stock of what we need and the steps of the project, as well as hold down the fort with the meals and run all.the.errands. to the hardware store. David does the tedious, messy manual labor.

 

 

I made my second trip to Harbison early that Friday morning and brought these two cuties along for company. Kira adores the hardware store. She adores the pet store even more, but that’s stressful because of all the yummy smells. She’s very well-behaved at Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, or Home Depot and charms everyone she sees. It makes me happy to see no-nonsense, rough-and-tumble construction workers melt into a grin when they see her trotting the aisles of Lowe’s.

David and I fortified ourselves for the day’s work with Starbucks and Kira got a pup cup (Noah got nothing because he still has a mountain of Halloween candy in his bedroom).

 

 

I love how different all our kids are. Amie and Gabe enjoy the projects their Dad is doing, with Noah popping in and out as long as he doesn’t get distracted by the bug alighting on the picnic table. Yes, Amie is going to be one of those cool DIY ladies, and I’m sure her family will love her for it.

I poked around Pinterest until I learned that the way to get latex paint to adhere to oil is to thoroughly sand the surface, then use an oil-based primer. Ours was Zinsser Cover-Stain. This allowed the new latex paint to actually bond to the primer.

Should we have had our doors/hinges tested for lead first? Possibly. This house was built in the 1970’s, after all, which is cutting it close. But we like to live on the edge.

 

 

I discovered, through some trial and error, that the best way to remove all the layers of old paint from the hinges is boil them in baking soda and water for 30 minutes. It works like a charm to loosen the paint, and Gabe and Noah were thrilled to actually be urged to peel paint rather than given a stern scolding for doing so.

 

 

David then spray painted the hinges black so they would match the dark bronze door knobs I bought.

 

 

Gabe is our budding engineer, and loves all the mind-numbing painstaking jobs of putting things together correctly. His eyes actually light up when I bring home a piece of Ikea furniture and ask for his help. He and David installed the new knobs and Judah helped them re-hang the doors.

And that’s that! Three clean, crisp-looking doors. And just three more to go.

I’ll be honest: we now see the logic of investing in purchasing new doors with their frames and having them installed by professionals. Poor Judah still has a door that doesn’t close properly and we hear him slamming it shut at 10:30 p.m. when he’s trying to go to bed and have a little privacy from a nosy dog who likes to wake him at 7:00 a.m. We’ve never had to worry about that with our bedroom addition because the doors were installed correctly to begin with. David plans to work on adjusting it at some point. And who knows? Maybe someday, many years down the road, we’ll go all out and install doors.

For now, I’m thankful we could save the money and that our boys’ hallway looks better.

 

 

I’m standing in the dining room taking this pic, with the boys’ bathroom right there to the left. The curtain covers the washer/dryer. I wanted you to see that nothing’s ever truly finished in an old house: our attic door doesn’t shut properly. And I bought a new light fixture to replace that dingy one, which will be installed at some point (the very last of the original house light fixtures to be replaced!). But progress, people, progress!

Here are the other views from our little hall.

 

 

 

The boys’ bathroom door is next on the list. We’ve done our best making a few cosmetic changes to a bathroom that desperately needs to be gutted and renovated. David wants to wait until the three boys are out of the house for obvious reasons. In the meantime, I try to beautify it with books and candles and green things.

 

 

One more thing. We did decide we’ll actually replace Amie’s bedroom door on the other side of our living room, and here’s why:

 

 

It opens right into the living room. The door isn’t in terrible shape but it’s very odd: Amie’s room was originally, a-couple-owners-ago, a sunroom, and this door opened into it. We recently discovered that the panels of her door are literally pieces of particle board covering slats.

 

 

Huh. Well I guess it worked for a couple decades at least. Her grandpa offered to remove the particle board to give her a beautifully-slatted wood door, and she was not enthused. She said, “I do not want people to be able to see into my room!” So we’ll match her door to ours’, which is also off the living room.

Is any of this making sense? If you’ve been to our house, I know it does and if not, I’m sorry! You’ll just have to pop over for a cup of tea sometime and see for yourself.