I Painted the Back Door

UPDATE 6/22/2020:

I painted the inside of the door black in 2020:


Another item from my 2016 Projects list done, albeit not a very exciting one.  The original metal back door that goes from the yard into the living room has always been ugly brown on the inside and outside:

darwin checking out the new french door leading from living room to yard        attaching the outdoor cat enclosure / catio connector to the catio and house

Now it’s black on the outside and white on the inside to match our other doors.  It’s a metal frame, so spray paint would have been optimal.  But since I didn’t want to take it off the house [the frame is screwed to the house like a storm window], I used Stix primer to give the inside and outside 2 coats.  I love my Little Giant ladder – it’s perfect for using on stairs:

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It was nice weather for priming, not too hot:

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On the left is a view from the fish ladder – you can see my DIY screen door directly above the yard door.  On the right is the primed frame – already an improvement over the brown:

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I painted the outside black, using the same exterior black paint I used for the front door and the screen door:

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I painted the screen insert black with the same primer and paint.  In hindsight I should have used spray paint.  I think I was in “paint” mode because I’d done the frame with paint.  Oh well:

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It came out OK:

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I did use spray paint [Rustoleum Metallic] to paint both sides of the glass insert [which we’ll swap out in colder weather]:

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On a side note, while I had the exterior white paint out [for the inside of the door frame] I also painted the grey clapboards surrounding our front door [leftover from when our front stoop was installed].  Before on left, after on right:

our front door after 1 coat of black semi-gloss behr paint       273o

Yesterday I went on an hour+ walk down Labor In Vain road in Ipswich.  It’s a very pretty road that follows the marshes and River:

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colorful leaves in the marsh down labor in vain road, ipswich        273w

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I saw these girls on the edge of the road near the end of my walk – they made me smile 🙂

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Yesterday was hubby and my 4th wedding anniversary!

He gave me beautiful flowers with a side of chocolate – he knows me well!  He had them sent to my office on Friday [total surprise!] and I carefully brought them home at the end of the day.  Birdie found the ferns to be quite tantalizing – enough to come down from her platforms for a closer look:

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I drew hubby some crayon art which he’d been requesting for his office – it includes all our furry friends – Darwin & Bonkers sleeping in one tree with Aloha [RIP] watching from above with a crooked halo:

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Birdie in the other tree, wearing her pink scarf like she is in the litter box enclosure art, and our 5 living rats:  Kona, Clarabell, Nibbler, Lava, & Franc at the bottom:

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Yesterday after my walk I came home to find this on the INSIDE of the bedroom window screen FULL BODY SHUDDER:

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Thankfully hubby convinced it it would rather be on the outside.  I would have had to move to a hotel if he hadn’t!

I’ll end this post with some pet pictures – Darwin relaxing, Bonkers drinking water, and Franc enjoying some summer breezes while I painted the door:

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273zk        273zl

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8 thoughts on “I Painted the Back Door”

  1. A adventurous week.
    Still the best wishes for the wedding day ,i see peonies and roses in your bouquet,the smell wonderful.
    A beautiful idea, all animal on a picture.
    Liebe Grüsse

    Reply
  2. Ditto Anne’s comments. Bonkers drinking out of the glass reminds me of Her when she drank out of the Goldfish bowl.

    Reply
  3. Nice job with the doors–your house is looking great. I love it–Labor in Vain Road. What’s the story behind that? That spider would have made me move out of the state!! And your kitties and rats are adorable, as always!

    Reply
    • I have always wondered what the story was, but never remembered to look it up! Apparently it was named Labor in Vain road after the fields which often flooded. Ha! It was a labor in vain to try to grow anything back in the day. The road/marsh still floods after big storms and winter meltoff!

      Reply
  4. Great job on the screen door – a huge visual improvement.
    Lots of pretty pictures of an incredibly interesting and pretty town.
    And gorgeous flowers from Jim!

    Reply

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