Mid-Century Door Part 3

Bronze Green won out, which is sort of a baby shit yellow, but I love it. What I don't love:

• All three lock sets were supposed to be keyed the same. They weren't.
• The front door handle is crooked.
• From the inside bar handle, the front door opens up instead of down, which is not only totally counter-intuitive. but incorrect.
• The garage door hardware was installed crooked.
• And finally...what I didn't realize until I already started painting the door...the top window in the door is made from a different trim set/stock than the smaller two windows. It has extra grooves in it. Granted, probably no one would notice this unless I point it out, but the point is, we paid for a custom door and essentially, I feel like what we got is second rate. The seam down the middle front of the door is kind of rough too. I don't want to sweat the small stuff and I'm so happy the damned thing is finally installed. But again, I'm not elated with the quality. But have to let it go.
• This is actually the second set of doors. The measurements for the first set were entered incorrectly at the store and Lowe's ordered the front door with the back door measurements and the back door with the front door measurements. So we waited forever for this, and then when they were finally installed, after repeated trips, well, not the greatest job and again, I'm not super satisfied with the quality of the door. I love the way it looks, but...

 They are returning today to re-key the doors and tweak the handles so they aren't crooked.

Mid-Century Front Door

As mentioned in a previous post, our front door needs to be replaced. It has too many bumps and bruised to be restored and includes a mix of nickel and brass hardware. I do appreciate the round porthole window. But I've been salivating over the Crestview Doors for months. I know they are well worth their price, but I couldn't really justify it considering all the other things we need to do. The glass kits were certainly doable by my dad, but again, priorities.

So my plan was to get a plain wood slab front door and apply decorative molding to front so it would look like an original 1960s door and like most of the houses in our neighborhood that have not had replacement doors installed. We went to Lowe's to get pricing on a pre-hung wood slab front door and a door for the back of the house as well.

The salesman, Paul, could not believe I wanted a wood front door. He kept asking if I was sure? Did I want anything on it? Any glass? So I said, "Well in my dream world I'd have a door like this..." and I drew a version of door #108 below. "I got a guy that can do those," he says. And he pulls out a binder with all these door options, made by a company that I think is in Columbia, Missouri. I had been looking online for options for months and felt there was no hope for a vintage door.

I danced. Like a fool. So we are getting a new pre-hung front door installed for at least $500 less than the Crestview, made locally. I actually think we are going with model #24. "A wood door is a real labor of love," the salesman said. "You can stain it, or if you paint it, make sure you use the best primer and paint you can, and monitor it over time against the elements."

No problem. I'm ecstatic! Which door do you like best?

Mid-Century Front Storm Door

The front storm door of this 1960 house is wrought iron and looks a lot like this Oak Leaf pattern. I really hate it.

Every time I drive through our new neighborhood, I check out the front doors and windows of the homes. My best guess is that about 25-30% of the homes have retained their original wrought iron door, front door, and windows. All the wrought iron doors have this oak leaf pattern. Most of the remaining homes have aluminum replacement windows and fiberglass doors with lots of etched window panes (arts and crafts, Victorian, etc. ) that in my opinion, don't really go with the style of the house.

I am sure that our storm door is original, but I'm not sure that I can really live with it. I thought about painting it an exceptional color because frankly, I'm having a hard time finding a replacement storm door that looks period. No Pattern Required has a good post about storm doors. This is an item I'm going to have to continue to source, research, ponder.

Next Up...the front door.