Operation Yard Overhaul

As of May 28th, I will have been living in my house for exactly five years and six months.  Five years ago, when I was but a wee lass, interest rates were hovering around 6%.  I got a fantastic deal.  For the time. Now, interest rates are quite a bit lower, and my fantastic deal doesn't look so fantastic anymore. Hence, refinancing.

After a brief visit with my friendly neighborhood credit union representative, I was rolling right along with the process of a refinance. Part of the process involves an appraisal.  Meaning someone is going to come look at my house and tell me what it's worth. I shall be judged. So, I decided to put a little bit of money and a lot of effort into making my house look it's very best for the nice people from the bank.

Step one, mow.  And edge. And weed-eat. That part was relatively simple.

Grow little tree!

Step two, plant a tree, and some flowers.  The tree was a present from my mom, and was totally on sale for $7.50.  Way to score a deal mom! She also brought me some pansies.  I think they're the purple ones.  My thumb isn't green.  It's usually orange or red, or whatever color I'm painting with at the moment.

Step three, mulch everything. Step four, create seating area under the smurf-brella, as my bestie calls it. Remember?  It was my first post.

Take smurfbrella, add chairs and a stool. 

Become dissatisfied with paint scheme and improve. 

Step 5 paint front door. This sounds really simple.  It wasn't. First, I had to get the bloody thing off it's hinges. I did this with a flat head screwdriver, a hammer, and an extra set of hands.  I carefully tapped the pins out of the hinges.

Carefully. Working in a corner is hard, and my thumbs are delicate.

Then I got it on the sawhorses, took out dozens of screws, a set of blinds, and three locks,  and examined the damage. My front door sadly looks awful. You can tell it was probably pried open with a flat crowbar at some point in it's life.  Hence the decade old alarm permit that I peeled off with a razor blade and the three weird mismatched locks that give it a decidedly paranoid feel.

And then we sand.  I needed to get a good "tooth" so that the paint would stick, not sand down to the bare wood.

I heart my detail sander.

Next, we clean. We have to get every bit of dust off the door. This is definitely not the fun part.

Then we tape off anything we don't want painted, and paint.  I taped off the windows, and painted everything but the triangular sections a nice boring beige. Then I taped off the flat parts of the door, and painted the triangular sections a rust red that matches the exterior of my house.  Gives it a nice "pop."

Here's a how to for you, to help you tape off corners without those little tabs of tape ruining your edges. 

Then came the painstaking process of hanging the door back on it's hinges and re-attaching all the paranoid hardware. During which I was too busy cursing and pinching my fingers to take pictures.  Sorry.

And voila!  It almost looks as good as a new door!  Almost.

Step 6, throw a barbecue!