so the good news is...
My landlord had my apartment's front door painted yesterday. You'll notice a darker color of brown toward the left of the door... that's not a shadow.. that's the part that was painted. Most of the door was left unpainted. My door was also painted shut... that bare spot where the paint is removed?... yeah, that happened when I opened my door. Two steps forward, one step back. Well, I'm not sure that this qualifies as a full two steps though.