Garage Door Bandaid

The former own of our house took great liberty when describing the finishes of the house. Some of our favorite "exaggerations" out of the many we've encountered include the "custom kitchen hardware" (removed during the kitchen reno) that is stocked at Menards. The "tranquil waterfall pond" which is actually just a trickle and the pond itself is leaking. The cedar roof "treated and maintained regularly" according to experts has only been treated once since install 30+ years ago. And most recently we discovered the "wood garage door" isn't wood at all.

The bubbling, chipping, stain covered door is actually fiber glass and the ticket to repair said door, nearly 1K! In fact, the man who gave us the quote said we would be better off purchasing a new door.

Say what!?! If you look closely the guy was ever so nice to give us a 2 car garage discount of $75 (read with eye rolling). 

Well I wasn't about to drop that kind of money on a garage door whose aesthetics I don't even care for.

In a few years when the siding is due for painting, we are hoping to give the whole exterior a new look including the garage doors. So for now we were just look for a bandaid solution to buy us time and make sure our neighbors don't start complaining about the state of our unsightly door. 

To put our plan into action Hubby grabbed the power sander and got to work stripping the door of all the peeling and flaking paint while I ran to the hardware store and grabbed a quart of cherrywood gel stain and a paint liner.

Hubby's original plan was to roll the stain on but the gel stain is thick like pudding so he simply applied it with an angled brush. Within an hour he had the entire door completed. We then opened it and allowed it to dry to lessen the chance of bugs or debris sticking onto the door.

We allowed the stain to cure & I came back 2 days later and applied a coat of semi-glass polyurethane being careful to avoid drips. Again application took around and hour and I allowed the door to dry open as a further precaution against drips.

Here she is all a bandaged up for a grand total of less than $20.00! And in case any of you were wondering how we managed this project with the kiddies around scroll down to see how they passed the time.

You've gotta love summer and siblings! Hope your week is off to a great start. We've got some nasty thunderstorms rolling through town and I'm up to my eyeballs in prep work for Hubby's big 35th party in 2 weeks. Time is zipping by!