Audrey Stewart wanted a red door. Her downtown Mathews business, 5 Star Oriental Medicine, needed a facelift, and she thought a red door would give it just the right touch.

But then, if the door were painted red, everything around it might look a bit bland. So she decided to paint the adjacent wood trim around the windows, as well. The only problem was that the window trim and the wainscoting below had layers and layers of old paint. Who knew how long it had been since someone had actually removed the previous paint before adding another coat? Maybe never. So, of course, the paint around and beneath the windows had to be stripped.

Thus, one thing led to another, and eventually the entire exterior of the building was transformed. The wood of the window frames and wainscoting turned out to be so beautiful that, instead of paint, it got just a coat of stain and a finish. New, larger support columns made of complementary wood were installed to support the roof over the porch, and ne...