Je T’adore

Hands up, anyone who loves scraping layers of paint off a metal door? Anybody? Bueller? I didn’t think so. 

This is how I spent my Saturday. I had already spent three hours on it the weekend before. Thank goodness my Mom came to visit and kept my brain occupied with conversation while I finished the job.

You don’t scrape paint because it’s fun. You do it because you know you’ll end up with a better-looking front door. The white paint on our front entry door was peeling and it was not appealing. It showed the green metal underneath. After five hours (over two days) of using a stripper, a strip-gun and a scraper, I didn’t get all of it off. Some of the paint was bonded like the helmet of the guy in the Crazy Glue ad. He wasn’t going to fall off that beam, no matter how much muscle I put into it.

Some people said, just buy a new door. Well, that’s several hundred dollars of new door while I have one right here. Yes, it’s work. But I told myself that I was building my upper-body strength in case I ever had to climb the side of a building to save a dangling toddler, or lift a Jeep off a baby. You never know.

The stripper was “contractor strength” and promised to take off layers of paint in one go. HA. Liar! (Heirloom MAX Heavy Duty Stripper Gel) Patches of the old paint simply would not come off unless I was willing to actually burn it off. I was not. The fumes were bad enough at the melting phase, let alone when the paint caught fire. I cleaned and sanded the best I could and regardless of its imperfections, its still far more attractive than the peeling white it used to wear. Since I couldn’t match the taupe of the window surrounds, we felt black was the way to go.

No, I won’t do yours too. Some have asked! But if you ever need help lifting a Jeep off a baby, call me. I’m good to go.