The Painting Begins & Continues

     I have to confess that while I'm sanding doors, drilling handle holes, and otherwise prepping these for paint I did what no runner should ever do -- counted how many doors (miles) are left to go.  When you're midway through a 50 miler the last thing you want in your head is that there's 20 miles to go!  Well in my defense, sanding is much more tedious than running in the mountains any day.
     I can only spray until around noontime, after that the sun hits the western side of our yard and the house no longer gives me any shade.  The other problem has been the wind, pretty hard to lay the paint down on the door when the winds gusting.  Here's the set-up:

     I made some quick and dirty sawhorses, ripped a couple of 8 foot 2x4's down the middle, and then spaced finish nails about 4" apart all the way down them, this will be the drying rack.  I then set up a turntable on a garbage can, covered it with tarps and that's the place to spray.  Worked out well if I do say so myself.
     First off was the backs, after one was sprayed it was put down the far end of the drying rack.  Repeat until the rack is completely filled up, then wait about 45 minutes to apply the second coat to them.

     Again, wait a bit and follow the same procedure on the fronts.  When all was said and done here's the results:

Two Coats, Front & Back

     Since the sun was just about to come into the side yard I needed a place to put them.  Best thing I could come up with was to run to Home Depot to get some lengths of cheap PVC to lay down on the garage floor and get them out of the sun -- sorry Mini you get to park outside next to the truck.
     Always a bit of a learning curve.  The paint is Sherman Williams ProClassic which is an acrylic latex.  I needed to thin it down quite a bit  (20+%) and even at that it seemed to come out with some splatters.  Keeping the gun close to the surface and shooting on a thin coat worked.  This paint flowed out nicely.  Diane and I both like how the grain of the Oak still telegraphs through the finish so you know it's not some plasticized door.  If you know me, I hate to paint wood!  My furniture is all about showcasing the species and selecting exotics to do just that.  I've even been given a hard time by the guys in the woodworkers group but what can I say?
     The center island is painted darker:

   
      It makes it disappear, we were afraid that if it was painted like the cabinets it may just look like a big block sitting in the middle of the kitchen.  We didn't plan this food theme but it's called French Roast and the color for the cabinets is called Marshmallow!  This was applied with a mohair roller (2 coats) and you can see how the woodgrain telegraphs through, the baseboard is taped off as is the floor.  Diane really has a knack for selecting the right colors.
     The plan for tomorrow, wind and weather cooperating, will be to paint the remainder of the doors.  Once they're sufficiently dry to put into a rack they'll be covered and the sanding will start for the drawer fronts.  Lots of wind and rain are predicted for Saturday through Monday so painting outside will be put on hold.  That's okay though, the drywall guy will be here to patch the hole and I have plenty of sanding and painting to do on the face frames but; who's counting!!