my new door

Do you ever have something get under your skin and you feel compelled to do something to get rid of it??  This happens to me quite a bit.  This time it was my front door.  A fairly new door that was beginning to peel for no apparent reason other than the weather taking its' toll on it.  

So, I began to sand the side light curious to see how easily the stain would come off .  Surprisingly, it came off rather easily so I kept going.  But, of course the more I sanded the more I became committed to redoing the WHOLE DOOR.  My husband warned me, but do you think I listened??  Regretfully, this time I didn't.  

I felt confident after reading John Dee's step by step instructions (see here).   John Dee is from This Old House.  He is a pro and I am not as I soon discovered!  But, I told myself I would be saving so much money by doing it myself (always a stickler for that!)

Needless to say after a lot of sanding (bye-bye fingerprints) I succumbed to chemical stripping (with gloves) to get the stubborn stain off.  I started with the side light (shown in the above photo) and then did the opposite sidelight.  Then I tackled the door.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out the door was fiberglass which meant the stain came off with little resistance using a chemical stripper. 

After power washing it was ready to stain. Yippee - I was making progress!!  I found my husbands blue shop towels folded up into a square worked really well for applying the stain.  We took the door off its hinges and with it laying flat there weren't any drips.  Applying the stain was the best part. 

This is the door after 2 coats.  Because the wood, molding and door are all different materials they took the stain to varying degrees.  I kept adding more coats to achieve more of a uniform color.

After a coat of polyurethane this was the end result.  Mind you this took about a month for me to complete working on it 2-3 hours several days a week.  As with many DIY projects this one cost me my blood, sweat and tears.  I had followed the advice of lightly sanding the first coat of polyurethane before adding another one.  I may not have done it "lightly" enough because I saw deep grooves and in some spots the stain came off.  I was completely frustrated with the idea of staining it ONE more time but I did and then added a coat of polyurethane again.  Then the weather turned cold, too cold  to add another recommended coat of polyurethane so I will wait until spring (when memories of how horrid this was will hopefully have faded.)

Little tidbits:  I used Minwax stain in Red Mahogany.
All of my materials cost about $50:  sandpaper, gloves, mineral spirits, brush, stain and polyurethane.   I found small brass brushes (which look like toothbrushes) worked great for getting the stain out around the moldings.
I learned the hard way that sandpaper will etch glass so be careful when sanding near glass!  Also, I will need to touch up the trim paint since sanding, scraping and chemical stripper were not kind to it.

I am glad this project is checked off the list!