Our beautiful doors

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When we began the project on Washington St., we immediately fell in love with the doors. They were vernacular 2-panel solid pine with a standard ogee trimmed edge on each panel - and we were determined to save and reuse them. Several folks told us that we were wasting our time - that it would have been much less expensive to donate those doors and then start over with new, pre-hung models, but we didn't give up, even when working out in the sweltering summer heat. In the end, it took nearly 8 weeks of hard work and over 20 hours per door, but it has been worth it.

Each door was covered by 6-8 layers of paint plus endless years of dirt and grime. Much of it was uneven which meant that it would have to be stripped off.

We used a mix of heat guns, sanding, eco-friendly strippers and just plain ole' elbow grease to get down to smooth wood. We were very careful to use protection against any potential lead-based paint by wearing masks, protective clothing and debris collection. In particular, we liked the 3M lead-filtering masks from Rooster Home & Hardware which worked like a champ.

Once the doors were stripped and sanded, they needed to be primed with Kilz® to stop any of the older, oil-based paint from causing peeling of the newer paint. For anyone who lives in an old house, you know that this is a common problem. Many times, new paint is added over the old layers without proper prep and it can often be peeled off in strips. Not good!

After priming, we sanded each door to create as smooth a finish as possible. For the top coat, we chose Sherwin-Williams Pure White (SW-7005). Our friend, Bob Helton, created a spray booth in the future laundry room by draping plastic sheeting around just under the ceiling level. By spraying the doors, rather than brushing them, we were able to smooth out some of the imperfections from years of wear, but we left just enough to show the age and character. I even got to try my hand at spraying but I ended up with more paint on me than on the doors. Luckily, it's eco-friendly latex paint so it washed off easily.

P.S. I took this selfie when I got home, looked in the mirror and burst out laughing. Those were my favorite glasses! Note that the door behind me is from my 1947 house, with a 4-panel layout but the same ogee trim on the panels. That was very common at the time.

Coming up next - installing the new (vintage style) hardware.