Good Idea gone bad

Our new external doors are unfinished, stain grade wood and they are really beautiful. One of my design ideas is to have lots of natural wood around the house. The back door has been in for a while, and the front and side doors just got put in Friday. They all need to be stained, or in this case clear coated. I thought it made sense to wait until all the doors were in before I stained. It seemed like it would save time to be able to prep and mask the doors all at once. Well, the back door got a bit of damage from sitting outside unfinished, but no big deal. Then we got rain last night and this morning! Yikes, I was very upset. Okay, so it wasn't a good plan to wait. I should have at least done the back door when it was first installed and then gotten right on the front and side door this weekend.

I thought I would be able to prep and get a first coat on all the doors today, but of course it took way longer than expected. I only managed to prep and stain the back door. You just can't believe how many surfaces there are to tape off until you start prepping. Then I couldn't believe how many surfaces there were once I started brushing the clear coat on. It took so long that there wasn't adequate time to dry, and I ended up missing a board meeting for an organization I'm on because I couldn't shut the door because the stain was still wet. I haven't used outdoor grade stain ever, and it takes a long time to dry.

Lesson here: Give yourself lots of time when staining things outdoor and schedule it when you can stay home with the doors open.