Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Doors

Not the band.  My doors.

So, I had a custom door built.  I tried to find one that I liked, and I tried to make one of those jenn-weld aluminum ones that look like wood customized, but ultimately, all that was going to be like $5k.  A bit spend for a front door, doncha think?

So, custom.  My father in law found someone, or some company locally who could do what I wanted.  We ordered a fancy handle set from the hardware store we can walk to from our house (yay awesome neighborhood!) and my contractor-father-in-law stained it a pretty english chestnut color.  (says the min wax)  It's douglas fir, and it's fab.
pretty, right?  i loves it.
But I am continuing to obsess about it . Why is that, you ask?  The freakin' storm door.
Not loving it.
Seriously, all you can see from the street is the white monstrosity.  I have it half glass/half screen so you can see how neither of them is really any better than the other.  Dislike!


bigger pretty
bigger monstrosity


You can't see my lovely, painstakingly selected and finished custom door!  What a waste!!!

So I'm unhappy.  Unhappy because no matter what, I've wasted money.  Wasted money on the screen door because I want to take it off completely, or wasted money buying a gorgeous wood door that no one can see except me when i'm bringing in groceries.

(For the record, btw I am also so so so over those lights and I want to ditch those and replace them with something pretty, as well.)  

I am kinda torn about what to do here.  The cheapest and easiest solution is to just take the monstrosity off and call it a day.  (If you don't remember because I post so infrequently, I don't know how much it will matter, since our door is protected by a relatively deep porch that's windowed in on two sides.)

We got rid of those awful yew, btw.

I am kinda torn about what to do here.  The cheapest and easiest solution is to just take the monstrosity off and call it a day.  (If you don't remember because I post so infrequently, I don't know how much it will matter, since our door is protected by a relatively deep porch that's windowed in on two sides.)
My dad told me that I could put a light in between the door and the screen door.  Illuminated door would be much more visible, and I could keep the screen door. 

I started obsessing about doors on Pinterest and found a HEAP of examples of "pretty door with no storm or screen in front", so that's apparently a thing.

http://pinterest.com/pin/331981851/

I also started wandering around my neighborhood and looking at everyone else's door situation. I will refrain from posting pictures of my neighbors houses because that seems like a neighborhood faux pas, but it's about split evenly between "has an aluminum or plastic modern looking door" "has their original or similarly lovely door and no storm door" or "has original door and original wooden storm door". So I started thinking, hey. I could have gotten a salvage front door. That would have been less painful that going to all the effort with the custom door. I looked around, and it would have cost about the same amount. But wait! Perhaps, there exists salvage or antique storm doors! 

We have a wooden storm door at the lake house, which I love to pieces. It's wooden, stained on the outside and painted inside. I wish I had a better picture, but it has a panel in the front that's glass with some stiles that you put in for the winder, and then swap it out with a similar screen one for the summer. I want THAT!!! 


So I googled and found some things. Nothing that would be the right size, and nothing where we live, but apparently all hope is not lost for the idea of an antique/salvage storm/screen door combo platter. This one is even douglas fir! Too bad it's too small. I am also assuming that it has a screen. It says removable panel, but who knows. I will continue to obsess about this for at least another six weeks, on account of how that's what I do. What do you think? No storm door? Hold out for an antique? Suck it up to not hurt contractor-father-in-law's feelings?

3 comments:

Sheila said...

This is quite the conundrum!! This is how I see the solution in order of preference:

1 - Ditch the storm door altogether. The house I grew up in doesn't have one, and doesn't even have a deep porch to protect it, and it's never been a problem. (My current house doesn't have one, either.)

1.5 - Ditch the storm door in the winter, when you don't need the screen door for cross-draft through the house (a bit laborious, but a compromise?)

2 - Get a lovely vintage wood storm door, or have the company that made the front door make one for you.

3 - At the very least, replace the white monstrosity with an equally ugly and cheap one in black or dark brown. It will still obscure the lovely wooden door behind, but at least it won't scream at you from the street.

I hope that helps!

Laura V said...

Check Construction Junction? They have a fuckton of doors there.

Fwiw, our house has a shmancy door with no storm on it. Someone obviously cut a dog door in it at some point and someone (else?) put a cheaper panel back to fill that in, so we may have to do a custom door at some point (to save the original 100+ yr old glass).

Connie said...

Thanks Sheila and Laura!

Yeah, I should totally hit up construction junction. I wonder if you can give them some criteria and be like "call me if X shows up".

Also, I think I like 1.5. I could totally put it back on for the few months we need it. And if not, keep it in the coal cellar just in case, which turns this into solution 1.

I think we are also going to ditch the storm windows on the front porch as well. The windows are not super pretty, but they look really junky with the storm windows anyway.

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