A New Front Door

I always loved this door.

It had great midcentury modern style and so perfectly fit with our little brick ranch house that was, naturally, built in the middle of the last century.

But this door had to go. For one, the outside had become so weathered you could quite literally get a splinter just from leaning up against it. (Had I thought to remove it, stand it, and stain it when we moved in more than five years ago, it might have looked OK today. But that thought never once crossed my mind until it was beyond repair.)

Plus it was so old and warped that you could actually see light coming through from outside on three of the four sides. That, of course, also means cold air was escaping in the summer and warm air was coming in. Not cool.

And, perhaps most importantly, the door handle no longer worked. It flat out didn't work. We tried to replace it when it broke, but our door is so old that new hardware won't fit it—the knob and lock on this door is set much farther away from the edge of the door than new hardware is. So we went for months with a worthless door handle that jiggled but did little else, with our only security being the deadbolt.

In other words, for this decidedly un-handy family, the door was beyond repair.

Since we aren't very good DIYers, of course, we finally had to break down and hire a contractor to install a new door for us. (We used the same company that did such a great job on our new kitchen.) So the hardest part for Conservative Hubby and I was picking the door and the color.

The book of doors the contractor gave us didn't include prices, so naturally we selected an incredibly expensive one without realizing it. After we went back to the book and tried again, we found a door we liked at a price we could handle. We also picked out a new screen door, which is one of my favorite parts, because the screen is built right into the door so all you do is push down on the top of the glass to let in great breezes. (Butter likes it, too.)

We knew we wanted to let in lots of light, so we thought this door would be just right. One thing we didn't consider, however, was how little privacy we'd have with so much clear glass. (Nor did we realize that it's hard to find curtains that actually fit a door like this, but the sheer hanging there does the trick for now—at least it ensures people don't have unfettered views straight into the dining room.)

For paint, I picked the same sandy-white hue as the walls for inside. For outside, I wanted something a bit fun, so I decided on a playful but not too crazy bright green called "Edamame."

I have to say, it's wonderful having a door with a handle that works, that opens and closes easily, and that isn't a safety hazard. Plus it brightens up the front of our house, which is a plus.

Another household to-do crossed off the list. Now if only those darn ugly bushes would just disappear ... and the carpet would replace itself ... and oh how I could go on ... and on ... and on ...