First of all, I want to Thank Rachel at OnePrettyThing for featuring two of my rehabs on her blog!  You really need to check Rachel’s blog out.  She compiles all the great stuff from blog world and I feel honored that she thinks my stuff is worthy enough to put on there.  I just discovered her DIY wedding blog  OnePrettyWedding.  I have had 5 friends get engaged in the past few months…maybe this website can help you girls out!

There have been many rehabs that have been done at my house and the one that is till looming over our heads is our curb appeal.  Our house is cute but our yard is a mess and we have issues with walk ways and odd quirks.  I wish I had time to be a full-time rehabber of my house but unless you are a full-time home DIY bloggers like these guys you have to do your projects around work and life.  I love doing projects in my free time but I also don’t want to forget about my friends, the commitments I have made to different things, and most importantly my marriage to the Hubs.  Date nights and down time with him is a must to make our marriage work! All that to say, the rehab process has taken years for our house and it still is a work in progress.  I will admit that there has been limited “work in progress in the yard” besides just upkeep and a few small projects.  Our yard is awful and we have big plans for it, but we have only had time to do a little at a time.  To be honest, the one thing that overwhelms me is rehabbing a yard.  I have to get motivated because it is simply hard labor.  I have found that little changes motivate me to do more.  We have recently done a small rehab that has motivated me to do more curb appeal.

The little rehab that I am posting about today is the front door. It was bad, and I don’t think the pictures do it justice.  It had a storm door when we first moved in.  The storm door was nice but it had green and brass trim.  I also like front doors without storm doors we decided to take it  off. To fix the holes from the screws I just filled them with wood filler and then repainted the trim around the door white. (The yellow on the door trim is the wood filler for the storm door holes) Here is a closer look at the condition of the door.

You could tell that it was at one time white and someone had painted it black.  You could see random brush strokes all over the door.  It was uneven and sloppy.  It was like someone had painted it blind folded.  There was a huge white circle around the door knob.  They must have not wanted to take the doorknob off or tape it.  On top of that, it had brass fixtures on it.  I complained about it about every time I walked into the door, so finally while I was running a weekend retreat for my job the Hubs surprised me with a rehabbed door.

First He took the door off and covered the entry way with a tarp.

He then took off all the hardware (knob, knocker, and kick plate) and then sanded it to smooth out the brush strokes.  He cleaned the door ,taped the sides,and then tried to set up a dust free environment in our garage (pre rehab). The door is fiberglass so it could only take light sanding.

Then he primed the door with about 4 couple coats of Spray Paint High interior/exterior primer:  (He allowed an hour for drying between each coat)

After the last coat of primer he started with the first coat of spray paint.  He used Rustoleum High Performance Enamel Black Spray Paint.  The Hubs put 6 coats of this stuff on the door.  Yes, I said 6.  He allowed for an hour to dry in between.  (what can I say…he is a thorough guy)  Needless to say, since there was a tarp on the front door He couldn’t leave until this project was done. (with four coats of primer and six coats of paint and an hour between each coat…yep, that is about 10 hours of being locked ”tarped” up in the house)

While waiting he worked on the knocker and the kick plate.  At first, we were just going to buy a new knocker and kick plate.  The kick plate alone would have been $25.00 and the knocker $15.00.  Call me cheap but I don’t like spending $25.00 on something like a kick plate.  So instead we bought a $4.96 can of Rustoleum High Performance enamel Brushed Nickel spray paint.  The Hubs primed and painted both.  (He didn’t put six coats of spray paint on these  This is how the knocker turned out. The kick plate turned out the same but I figured you would get the point with this pic.

When we moved in we had three different door locks on our garage door, back door, and front door.  When we did the laundry room layout renovation we had to get a new garage door and back door .  Therefore, we got new knobs/locks.  We went with the Kwikset with Smart Key technology so we could key all the locks to the same key and have the ability to re-key them when we bought front door hardware.  And added plus is that if we needed to re-key the locks for any other reason, we could without having to buy all new lock sets.  A year ago we found a Kwikset front door set on clearance at Lowes for $50.oo.  It was originally $115 so it was a steal.  Unfortunately, it sat in a closet until a few months ago when the project actually was done.  Now all of our doors can be keyed to the same key and we can switch it up when ever we want to make our house more secure.  Here is the rehabbed door!

Yeah!!!  The total cost of this rehab was $

• 2 Cans Rustoelum High Performance Gloss Enamel Black Spray Paint $5.96, Lowes Total: $11.92 (with tax)
• 1 Can Rustoluem interior/exterior Primer $5.96
• Painters Tape (free we always have this)
• 1 Can Rustoelum High Performance Gloss Enamel Brushed Nickel Spray Paint, Lowes:  $5.96
• Kwikset Hawthorne Entry Way Lock set, Lowes..on clearance $50.00
• Sand paper (Free:  we have this)
• Total:  $83.84..Not bad considering a new door fiber glass entry door costs $180.00.  The price for a new door does not including Lockset, and kick plate.

I am happy when I come in the door!  It makes me want to do more!  Stay tuned…I have done more! I rehabbed the House numbers that were on the archway and I updated an old entry mat.  Our porch is starting to come together.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer