Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Labor Day weekend chore warrior

Hurricane Hermine brought us needed rain but that also meant I couldn't get to my porch project until Sunday when things had dried out completely, so once again I didn't get as much done as I had planned. But we definitely made progress.

The porch screen doors are done! I love how they look with the new door pulls instead of the latch, and the effect of the soft white milk paint is exactly what I wanted.


I also treated our front door with pure tung oil, also purchased from the Real Milk Paint company. It is a delight to work with and although they recommend using it in a ventilated area, the odor is a very nice nutty smell that isn't strong at all. They recommend 4-6 treatments of tung oil for full waterproofing in an outdoor area. Since the porch is covered I'm going to do 3 more over the next 3 weekends. But even this first coat has made a huge difference in the door. I should have taken a before photo but forgot to do so! The wood was dry and a very light brown in areas. It looks really good now. The light strips along the two panels aren't really as light as they look in this photo. I also treated the wooden door jamb. I was tempted to come in and do the wood floors - maybe a future project. 


I also washed down the "not sure if it needs painting or not" white areas of the porch with a white vinegar and water solution and there is really no need for painting any of it at this time, thank goodness!

There are now three big screens, a support beam, and one smaller triangular screen left to go. After that it's on to the cat tunnel and front porch steps. 

Hope everyone had a happy long weekend!


4 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Everything looks great! I used tung oil on the old doors we have but only did one coat so far. It was too humid this summer, I also like the smell of it. With the weather changing I have a feeling a lot of things will get done that were put on the back burner because of the heat. I can't say this weekend was fun but I did get a good chunk of the white vinyl fence power washed.

billie said...

Tung oil and autumn seem like a perfect match to me. :)

I am so ready for the humidity to leave. We had some cool weather but back to mid-90 this week. Ugh.

Grey Horse Matters said...

We've got the same weather here. Heading back into the 90's this weekend. Ugh, I hope this is the end of it.

billie said...

Me too! Instead of a rain dance we need to get outside and do a chilly dance!