Bedroom Door Progress (Replacing Hardie Trim With Faux Concrete Stones)

I was able to make really good progress on the exterior door yesterday, and I’m really excited about how this project is turning out. I didn’t get as far as I hoped yesterday because the weather slowed me down a bit. This time, it wasn’t rain that slowed me down. It was the temperature. When I took a break and checked the temperature, it was 101 degrees with a “feels like” temperature of 110 degrees.

So needless to say, I had to take frequent breaks to stay hydrated, but I’m determined to get this final outdoor project finished before I take a break from my outdoor projects for the rest of the summer.

Just as a reminder, this is how this door started out…

And here’s what it looked like last night when I finally decided to call it quits for the evening…

Note that there’s purple painters tape on the white door trim to protect it from the concrete. Once that’s removed, more of the white trim will show.

I know these “stones” don’t look nearly as good as the ones that I made for the front porch skirting, but I’m equally as proud of and excited about these because I took a chance, tried something completely out of my comfort zone, and IT’S WORKING!

Here’s what it looked like this morning. Obviously, I still have to fill in the mortar lines, but the “stones” on the left side are finished. They’ll still need primer and paint, but I’ll wait and do all of the priming and painting on both sides until both sides are finished.

I ran into a challenge when I reached the top. This top part still doesn’t look great, and there’s really nothing I can do about it. But I think I was able to minimize the wonkiness a bit. The problem is that there’s a thick metal plate that goes all the way across the top of the door. That metal plate is original, and that’s what’s holding up those top stones. That metal plate is very obviously unlevel. But since it’s actually structural, I can’t mess with it. But then underneath that is the Hardie trim that trims out the top jamb of the door. That piece is level, as is the door.

So what I ended up doing is using my Dremel Multi-Max to cut off just the part of the Hardie trim that extended past the door framing (as indicated by the white lines on the right side of the door in the picture below)…

So that I could carry that final top stone up to the metal piece instead of having it dead end into the top Hardie trim piece. And then I’ll find a way (which I haven’t quite figured out yet) to fill in and disguise that gap created by the unlevel metal support piece.

Trying to deal with and figure out clever solutions to those wonky problems is just part of the fun of working on an old house. I don’t have it figured out yet, but I will! I don’t think I can use concrete to build that part out and cover it up because there’s nothing for the concrete to bond to. It’s just caulk and metal in that area, and I don’t think concrete will bond to either of those things. But you can bet that I’ll do my very best to find a way to disguise that and make it look level.

But even with that little wonkiness at the top, I think this looks so much better already! Here’s a comparison of what this side looked like after I removed the Hardie trim…

And what it looks like now…

And while these stones don’t look nearly as good as the ones on my front porch skirting, and they’re obviously not an exact match for the original stone (since I used two completely different processes to make them), I’m okay with that. This door isn’t the focal point of the front of our house. Our porch is front-and-center, and it’s the focal point of the front of our house, so I wanted those stones on the front porch to be an exact match. This door is off to the side, so it won’t get nearly as much attention. And from a distance, I don’t think anyone will notice or be able to tell that these stones aren’t original, or that they’re not a perfect match to the original stones. Once they’re mortared, primed, and painted, I think they’ll blend in perfectly.

I am so proud of how this is turning out. I went from hating how this door looked on the outside to loving it! I’m really hoping that I can get it all finished by the end of the day tomorrow, but I make no promises. The concrete has to cure for a minimum of four hours before I can prime and paint it, so there’s a very good chance I won’t get to the priming and painting until Friday.

Even after 30+ years of DIYing, I tend to have a very unrealistic expectation of how long a project should and will take. And I don’t think that’s a problem that’s unique to me. Just this morning in our family group chat, my mom sent us this message. It gave me a good chuckle because this is me in a nutshell.