An Inconvenient Untruth

Remember the awesome new door we got recently? And how it came unfinished? Well, Scott and I have never stained anything, ever. So we asked the guy at Lowes and the contractors if we could stain the door on its hinges (instead of taking the whole thing down) as we have nowhere to put it, or anything to put it on. They both said yes. We should not have believed them.

Finishing a door on its hinges is a monumental pain in the ass. And the instructions that came with the stain kit are fuzzy at best. We sort of figured things out as we went, but consequently one side looks better than the other. Although I think overall it looks okay on the less-than-perfect side, so it's not a huge deal. We're in the drying stage right now, which will probably take 4 hours. Then we put on the topcoat. I still have doubts as to whether we did this right, and my fear that the stain will never, ever be dry has increased exponentially through the afternoon. Worst case scenario, we won't be able to apply the topcoat tonight, and I will take a half-day tomorrow so I can do it in the afternoon. Luckily, it's not supposed to rain until Thursday... although it will be below freezing, and I don't know if that would affect anything.

But seriously, if someone tells you it's fine to stain a door on its hinges, call them a douchebag. It would have been well worth the money spent on a couple of horses and 2x4s to avoid all the taping and pathetic attempts at using a Q-tip to get in the tight spots around the hinges. Better yet, find yourself a couple of migrant workers to do the whole thing. Way easier.

Edited To Add: It is now 7:30pm and the stain is still not totally dry. We put the doorhandle back on, and will leave it ajar until bedtime (to ensure the edges are completely dry). Tomorrow I will take the handle off again and apply the topcoat. Ah, good times. By the way, Thermatru's Same Day Stain can only be done in one day if your day starts at 5am and ends at like 9pm (even if you take it off the hinges).
We started at 8am and even if the stain was dry by 5, the first topcoat needs 2-3 hours to dry. Then I assume another 2-3 hours after the second coat until you could hang the door. Super. Oh, and the cherry on top? Our door is WAY darker than everyone else's. Either we got the wrong stain, or we did something very wrong. Probably the latter.