To Restore the Door, And Several More

Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in!  Psalm 24:7

Speaking of ancient doors, The doors to our home aren't exactly ancient.  They will be 26 years old later this year, but they LOOK ancient.  Although they don't get direct sunlight as we live beneath trees, they are weathered, dull and dried out.  Every so often we'll apply some Old English Lemon Oil to the doors and it will liven them up for a brief time and then they revert back to the same sad-looking doors.

From a distance, you might think that the doors don't look that bad, but when you zoom in, you can see clearly that something must be done!  Each morning when I pray, after I call out names of family, friends, and needs to the Lord, I also pray for all that He's given us stewardship over.  Our animals, garden, trees, and yes, our home.  I pray that we'd be able to keep things maintained and that things don't break and stay in good repair.  Well, our doors are in poor repair, and it was high time that we did something about it.

I went to our local hardware store and got some helpful advice on how to restore the doors.  The front door was worse for wear, but all eight doors needed a facelift.  It was a tedious process, but you have to start somewhere.  I got some 220 grit sandpaper and used a palm sander to sand all the flat areas and a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a foam brick to get all the nooks and crannies sanded.  I didn't sand all the way to the wood, but just to rough it up a little.

Then I stained the doors with a stain called Provincial using a foam brush.  I came back in a bit and wiped the stain off with a rag.  We had some low humidity days which worked in our favor.  When the stain dried, I used a 320 grit sandpaper to gently rough the surface up and then applied a coat of polyurethane.  Once that was dried, I sanded gently again and applied yet another coat of polyurethane.  Once that was dried, it was done!

Here is the finished product:

We are pleased with the outcome.  It's certainly better than they were.  Here is the side door once it was redone:

The ancient doors look somewhat new again!  It was good to get this project completed before the hot, humid days arrive.  When they arrive, the stain and polyurethane would have taken a long, long time to dry.  We'll try to be better stewards and keep the doors in better shape from now on.