SHUT the BACK DOOR!

I finally got the window on my van repaired I made 10 short videos of the process I hope to stitch them together on You tube,  so as not to use my data I will go to the library one day and do that! 

... since I got back from the weekend at the Pamlico Sound, I've been back to work on the deck area but not necessarily the deck, but the door that opens onto the deck...which is the front door that is in the back! LoL...Don't forget this house was moved to this location, this WAS the front of the house we chose to view our pasture rather than the dirt road that is the main artery in and out of the place, and lots of  heavy woods!!  So we like the view the other way,.

I don't have horses in my pasture right now...but I see plenty of these, this one has a very young fawn she beds down by the fence then she grazes, I can't spot him unless he gets up and he flushes so fast he is like a streak of brown. There is plenty of birds that land out in our pasture to hunt and pick around too, SO that's why the house is facing this direction so the back door was the front door---

I had to remove that ugly awning, and paint the storm door, the light fixture needed to be refurbished, the door trim had to be scraped and painted, and the storm door had to be screened. 

BEFORE:

here it is in the shady afternoon. BEFORE:

I don't really know why this ugly awning ended up here it is not original to this house...so off it comes!!  The little light fixture is original and so I will refinish it. Here's the front without the awning, I will plug up the holes that were left by the bolts holding the awning on with some matching caulk that I have on hand...

After Awning removed

I scraped the metal attic vent and door trim for painting and removed the light fixture. 

before 

when the other paint was drying I took the light fixture to my work bench for striping. It's copper so it has a lovely patina...

After

 glass cleaned and new wires in the fixture to wire to the house wire...

The storm door had rusted on the bottom, the screening was missing and the glass was in need of a good cleaning too.  

Before 
---
After

Below is a more in depth  on the screening process...

And the siding was dirty!! I had not been able to get to it since there was no sturdy floor on the deck for so long! 

I cleaned the siding, and spray painted the vent, I used some cardboard to keep over-spray from getting on the siding, there is some old paint smears from the awning, that need to be scraped off with some steel wool? I will do that when I get back up on the ladder to caulk.  After priming the door trim, I spray painted the storm door, inside and out. Also using cardboard and painting tape to protect the glass parts from over spray. 

Here is the storm door and door trim after painting...and after cleaning the siding.

I also painted all the flashing at the top edge of the decking white...I had used some brown and some aluminum flashing so now its all white!  

the storm door handle got a new coat of paint too.

and once it all dried it was time to clean  the bottom section of glass and put in new screening.   You need one of these spline rolling tools to properly sink the spline that holds screen wire in place into the channel where it fits

....here is how I did it, you can purchase a pack of spline that contains the 3 most popular sizes, its not expensive and choose the one that will fit in the groove where the screen sits...I found my size, also got some replacement screen I went with the fiberglass screening, and I put some tape to help hold it up..while I roll in the spline.

It's better to close the door so it doesn't swing back n forth when you are trying to push the spline in, after the screen is in position you use the roller to press the spline into place go easy if it slips it will cut the screening! I roll it in place then work about 6 inches of spline in at a time, when you get to the corners press it into the corner then continue rolling it into the channel where it fits snugly. 

Once you have pressed the spline all the way around into all 4 sides of the channel you can trim with a razor knife I stayed about 1/8 inch outside my spline.

Here it is with the screen in and the glass back in, now I can raise the glass and get a breeze when its nice outside...

The door and the whole entrance looks so much better!!

BEFORE

AFTER 

I decided I don't need an awning, if it turns out I do, I think I'll make some like I did for the screen porch...

I did finally cut those Azelea's down almost to the ground they were so out of control...much better now...Sorry no photo of that at this point..

NOW I just have to get the steps on and the railings up!!
SO FAR SO GOOD!  Today I pressured washed the entire exterior of the house! Glad that's done for another year

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.