We had a wood door replaced with a fiberglass one (due to the wood warping). The replacement door is stained and looks very much like the real thing - but much less maintenance. It's painted on the outside. I love wood too, but unless the door is protected by a porch or roof or something, it's going to be pretty high maintenance. Here's a pic - it goes from the utility room to the deck outside. img src="http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n167/zone_8grandma/DSC_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket">

The minute we walked into this house, we knew it was the "project" house we'd been wanting. It is old enough to have charm and to need work, is well-built and well-maintained so it doesn't need massive structural work, and has not been updated for many decades (excepting some fixture replacements...not all...and a few things here/there...all perfectly acceptable!). A blacksmithing family built the house in the late 1800s--we have a photo dated 1890 in which the house figures prominently, so it was built at least by then--and five generations of the family subsequently lived there. The folks who sold it to us were doing so to settle the family estate. They are the last of the family line and live very far away, so they cannot live in the house themselves, but they wanted to ensure that the "right" buyers purchased it. Apparently it has been in limbo for some time and they have turned down flat several offers to buy the house/land because they feared the house would be torn down or unappreciated. My DH and I wrote a letter to accompany our purchase offer: he is a planner with an architectural background, and I recently graduated with my MAHP, so historic houses are just our thing. :) It's the funniest thing...when the realtor was showing it to us she was very apologetic about the kitchen/bathroom and how dated they are. To me, the kitchen is one of the best rooms in the house because it hasn't been gutted of any of its 1940s-50s charm. It's an addition that hasn't changed much since it was built, as far as we can tell. PERFECT! I had to tell the realtor after the closing how much her apologies had fallen on deaf ears. Every time we walk through the door I'm struck by how it feels like home. We have an electrical crew rewiring right now (fishing new wiring into the old K&T chases), but once they're done it'll be ready to move into. I can't wait. As we've explored the various trunks, dressers, hutches, etc. that are there we've found some fascinating family history as well as some great house history. I have shivers just writing about it. Of course, there are a few problems. At one point the upstairs bath (a closet with a toilet and the tiniest sink in the world) had a minor leak. We'll need to do some probing to ensure that there's no rot or fungal problem lurking. And, probably because of the moisture and heat, the kitchen plaster walls are not in the greatest of shape. However, the plaster in the other rooms is lovely, and from what I could see in the attic, at least the second-story ceilings are remarkably well keyed. Woohoo! The woodwork has not experienced the dozens of paint layers that frequently accompany old houses. There's no real wood rot, even on the exterior wood, that I can find. We'll need to strip off the steel siding to reveal the clapboard underneath, but that will wait until spring, after we've gotten a few other things taken care of. I know this is the longest post EVER, but I can't resist telling the story of this house to some folks who will appreciate it! Most of our friends/family seem to fall into the camp of "Are you nuts? You must be absolutely nuts!!"

FPE-lore...her goes!! What makes a "Great" paint: 1) Extremely fine pigment grinding. - I've been told they use an old-style ball-mill, and grind pigments for 3 WEEKS...instead of the U.S.'s "hours", or a day or so. - This leads to VERY DENSE/OPAQUE film-builds. - The Gloss-levels of their Brilliant lines are near mirror-like because of this. - Details like this are discussed on their DVD. 2) 2 Colorant types..."Pastes"... - VERY important here! - The U.S. uses Glycol-based Universal-Tint-Colorants (UTC's), because these mix into BOTH Latex AND Oil binders. - Instead of the LIQUID Glycol-based colorants 99% of mfr's. use, FPE's are VERY finely ground/dense PASTES. - This makes a deep FPE color MUCH more opaque than the typical U.S. "loads-of-liquid colorant" built colors. - So...instead of dumping a boat-load of liquid Glycol-based colorant into a sheer dark tint-base, FPE uses pastes. - Another HUGE difference...FPE uses SEPARATE Acrylic and Alkyd colorant-pastes! So....Latexes and Oils each have their own colorants! CHEAP...No. Effective...Very. - Bottom-line...the FACTORY and the stores use THE SAME COLORANT! In a way, an FPE store IS a "factory" of sorts... 3) Friendly Ingredients: - Low VOC's in the Latexes. - Only light odors too, and dissipate quickly. 4) My own tests: - I've described my "Wine Red" test on the Paint forum. ONE COAT...pulled thin...COMPLETE OPACITY...NOT normal! - I did a pop-and-water rub test on this too. - Using the Oil glosses...Uffda. You can SEE yourself clearly! And I used a foam brush... - Same thing with the Low-VOC ECO. Beautiful, bright, clean gloss! - Because of this, I ordered some for my downstairs bath. VERY pleased...I left it as one coat! Very tough film. - The Eurolux Matte I used seems totally impervious to water. It's more of an Eggshell look though... Soooo...to ME...this stuff is the Four-Seasons of Paint! Faron

Maybe you've already made your decision, but I wanted to share our experience, as we love warm, golden tones, but found choosing the right color for our main living area to be a huge challenge, as everything seemed to look too yellow, even though, I like you, find yellow to be my favorite color. We have Compatible Cream in our master bedroom, and BM Wilmington Tan in our main living area. While we were initially going to paint the celings the same color as the walls, our painter talked us out of it. She said that painting the ceilings a creamy color would lend height to our rooms and keep the gold tones from overpowering the rooms. We're very happy we did this, as it now looks fine. We used BM Vanilla Ice Cream for our woodwork, doors, and ceilings. Also, I think your dark furnishings (i.e. dark brown chairs and dining set) will look great with the light wall color. Your hubby's idea about the use of red in an adjoining area is good too. We used a red in our kitchen, which opens to the great room and foyer areas, and love it. Les always has great advice, and I know for a fact she's right about the big yellow box feeling without any furnishings, etc. to add depth to the space. Now that we have our furniture in place, as well as accessories, the dreaded "over-yellowness" is not even close to an issue. In fact, when people come over to our house, they always comment on how nice the colors are. Also, I agree with Les that painting a wall a different color in each room likely won't help the situation. Although, I must disclaim in that I am by no means the experienced talent that Les is. Anyway, here is a picture of our (unfurnished) master bedroom: Now that we have our bedroom set and deep red quilt with simple, white curtains, the room looks great. It will look fine when it's done. Jan