working on some curb appeal

Not so long ago my husband declared us DONE! with the house. "NO more projects", he said.  "NOT ANOTHER PENNY!", he exclaimed.  "I can't wait to move", he fumed{move? sounds like lots more projects to me-let's go!}.  That man of mine, he just still doesn't know what he got himself into when he married me. 

After painting the shutters and putting in river rock last summer, it was time for stage two of the front yard spruce up{I think there are three more stages to come}.  When driving by a little cottage with a beautiful marigold door I was inspired to do my own door redo, it was also time to add color to the front in an attempt to make my not so cottage like house a little more quaint.

The Adirondack chairs were finally painted.  Some potted flowers, and my mom, bless her little heart{yes, I live in the south}, made the outdoor pillows for me.

New blinds for the front windows.

A freshly, unpainted-painted-distressed door and things are looking good{way better on a sunny day though}.The gold door handle will eventually be changed out.  I need a flag or a something else on the brick wall, but that might be next year. All and all, from the curb the door makes the house look much more inviting.  Hey! that's curb appeal-hooray!

I have to say, even though this was not what I intended for the door, I like it.  I had wanted to strip and stain it originally, but the paint from years ago had saturated the wood too deep to strip.  It is pine, and there were white and grayish splotches-I was in a bit of a panic with no plan B.

Clearly someone wasn't panicking at all. It took A LOT of stripper, but mom and I had fun{I think-mom did we have fun?}. 

I ended up liking the white blotches and the pine-who knew!  To even out the look I painted the whole door with white paint stain{Cabot brand I think}.  I then went back and sanded it off, put a coat of Waterlox on the top{left over from the counter tops} and that was it.  Deciding if I should put house numbers on it, a knocker or just a wreath hook. I mean really, as if I would ever be DONE with it :)