Our front door had been bothering me for quite some time; for seven years and two months to be exact.  We purchased our 1960’s ranch style home back in 2007 and began to make small improvements.

I’ve never been much of a handy person and have left most the hard work to El Hombre (that’s Spanish for “the Man,” a/k/a my husband).  One thing that he never got around to fixing or replacing was our front door.

So, a couple of months ago I became secretly obsessed and decided something had to be done.  The door looked worn out and unattractive.  Finding a solution became my temporary escape from thinking about my cases and billable hours.  I read countless blogs and other websites in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep.  I finally decided against replacing the solid wood door and instead opted for refinishing it.  This  ended up consisting of cleaning the door with mineral spirits, removing the door, filling some cracks with wood puddy, sanding it down (multiple times), cleaning it again, staining, adding a few coats of polyurethane, and finally putting it back up. The process took longer than I expected, but I’m proud to say that I did all of it by myself.

I wish I had taken a picture of the door before I started, but didn’t do so until I was sanding it down.

Here are some pictures of the door in process and the final result.

 

So here are the lessons I learned with the project:

1. Always plan to spend twice as much time on any home improvement project than originally planned.

2. A little elbow grease goes a long way to breathing new life into something that’s been neglected.  Like the old door, I had overlooked the importance of maintaining a positive attitude.  Every job is hard and comes with its own challenges.  Being a lawyer can be rewarding and fun, but can also be draining, depressing, and stress-filled.  If I don’t keep my perspective in check, I start to dwell on the challenges and start to feel negative and worn down. Taking the time to work on the door gave me time to reflect, refocus, and recharge.  I made a conscious effort to “refinish” my attitude and keep going.  I also learned that the refinishing process does not have a definitive end.  It is something we must continue to do from time to time.

3.  I discovered I love to use power tools.  I’m looking around my house to see what else I can sand down and refinish.  That old bookshelf better watch out!