The Hopeless Garage Door

What do you do when the previous homeowner decides to put in this beauty of a garage door?


(from our initial walk through)

Yes, you are looking at that right. It is one of those yellow plastic rolling commercial garage doors. It was such an eyesore! To replace it would have set us back about $300. I have more important projects to spend that money on so what's a girl to do? Grab a can of paint, of course!

I thought painting it was out of the question because it was plastic and because it rolled. The light bulb came on once I realized the sections didn't actually bend. (Can you tell how often I actually go out to the workshop? lol)

I picked up a quart of enamel paint at Lowes. I took a deep breath and then just started painting. What I should have done was tested out a spot. What I should have done was tested its durability. Instead, I just went for it with this uneasy feeling that it might be peeling by next summer. No worries though! I scrubbed, scratched, and pressure washed after the first coat was up. It's not budging!



I hung the planters a little too low. (Tip, don't attach them without the planters nearby. For some reason I thought the chain was much shorter.) But overall, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Why have I been living with this ugly door for so long??

Some more before/afters:





I'm undecided about the side door color. I really think it would look better white but Matt pointed out how dirty it gets. Who knows how long it will stay this color. :)

Project Cost Breakdown:
Enamel paint: $10
Total: $10 Yep, that's it! Ugliness erased with only $10. If you count the paint for the entire workshop, it only set me back about $40. But that is a whole 'nother post where I cry about the scraping and sanding.

57 bags of top soil, 7 gallons of paint, and an aching back.

Before:


(The deceiving picture from the online listing that I mentioned earlier.)

This is what we saw in our walk-through:


This is what we were working with come spring/summer:


Overgrown shrubs, dead grass, a sad faded yellow paint color, and a floral mailbox. It was depressing. But now, not so much. :)



Please ignore the big blue tub. It houses all the river rock that I'm still pulling up and eventually delivering to my friend's fire pit. There is still a lot to do: scrape and paint trim, fill in the bare areas, finish transplanting the rest of the hosta to the side of the house, new edging... The list is never-ending.

As an overeager homeowner, I:

1. Painted. Yep, the ENTIRE house, by MYSELF. Olympic's Stone Grey for the house color and Phantom Mist for the shutters. It looks black on the paint chip but is a wonderfully rich espresso brown. All for about $150. Yes, you heard that right. $150!

2. Ripped out the shrubs. With the help of a generous friend. Who am I kidding? I didn't "help"at at. She was wielding that ax just fine. If it was left for me to do, those shrubs might still be there today. (I'm paying her back in the form of river rock.)





3. Dug up a ton, literally, of river rock. Replaced with black mulch.

4. Slowly added new plants. Last summer, I was about 25%.


I think I'm about 50% this summer. Hopefully next year, I'll find exactly what I need to fill in the rest of the area.


5. Decorated with some hanging baskets. My $5 Boston ferns and $5 hanging baskets from WalMart. $40 for all of this. Can you believe it?



Another quick before and after:





6. My favorite part was fixing that grass for under a hundred bucks. 57 bags of top soil, fertilizer, and a bag of grass seed later:





7. I was glad once we got rid of the ugly mailbox. We had a little giggle when Matt pulled it out of the ground. We replaced it with a basic black house-mounted one. (One that I hung a bit too tall. I don't think my mail carrier can close it. I didn't think about the fact not everyone is 5'9". lol)



8. You can't see the house numbers because I removed them from the pics, but they are of the floating numbers sort. Similar to:


I think that's about it. lol This totally inspired me to break out the "listing" pics of the house and compare them to the "now" pics. Look for more blog posts to come!

Say what? "No Soliciting" Signs are Tacky?

Apparently some people think this. Apparently these people don't get solicitors at their doors! lol I just picked up a small sticker that fits in my screen door. But it must be minuscule (or invisible) because my door bell continues to ring.

After the following conversation, I decided to make my own sign.

Ding! Dong!
Me: Yes?
Solicitor: I'd like to show you my cleaning products and get your opinion.
Me: (pointing to sign) Isn't that soliciting?
Solicitor: No, I don't consider it to be soliciting.
Me: Well, I do.
Solicitor: No, I don't think it is.
Me: Can I buy your products if I'm impressed with them?
Solicitor: Yes.
Me: (closes door)

My new sign:

No Soliciting

Solicitation so·lic'i·ta'tion n. [suh-lis-i-tey-shuhn]
1. To petition persistently; importune: solicited the neighbors for donations.
2. This means selling something.
3. Requesting donations.
4. Advertising
5. Surveys
6. Viewing my phone bill to see where you can save me money.

7. Saving my soul.
8. And yes, YOU too. If you don't know my first name, then don't ring my doorbell. TIA!

I'm taking votes on how long it will be before my house gets egged. By the way, for those of you in need of a nice unobtrusive sign, I found these.