The Back Door

What feels like the last piece to the puzzle was installed yesterday. I know its really not the last piece being all of the landscaping needs to be dealt with in the spring, but it sure feels like it. Now that both doors are in there is a bit of a sense of completion in the house. I have to say, its a pretty nice feeling.....





Here is the back door in all its glory. Not a ton different here then the front door from a style standpoint, but quite a bit from a usefullness perspective. So this door, as you can see, has four windows instead of six. We did this because I wanted to get as much light as possible into the mudroom area with it having very little natural light. I have to say that we were successful in donig that. When I was home yesterday for lunch and the sun was out (unlike today) it was evident the space was getting a lot of light.

This gives you a little bit better idea the kind of light that can filter through the windows during the daytime. As with the glass in the front doors, this is made with dual pane reinforced shatterproof tempered glass that is inset in a way to prevent it being kicked out easily. This was a pre-requisite for us with the back door here. Also like the front door, the door is constructed of solid poplar and is almost 2" thick. We had to feel like the house was going to be safe from that sort of break in.

Here is a shot of the back of the house at night now that its been fully finsished. I neglected to turn on the lights surrounding the sliding door on the first floor, but this is pretty representative of what the house will look like at night from the back. I am quite happy with the way it turned out. When we originally put this together with the architects, I was worried the space on the west side (left side) of the back would look too empty and unbalanced with the one window on the upper story. I don't think thats the case now that things are done, and I am convinced that it would have looked fine I hadn't added the window in the master bath.

I realized I never put up a picture of the front door from the outside so I ran around the front last night to get a quick shot. The front isnt quite as finished as I would like (broken glass bottom on the porch light, unfinished front trim board, unfinished painting on the porch) but I am happy that the door profile did what I wanted for the house - made an old dutch colonial home look more contemporary without changing the actual structure of the home.

The Front Door

The saying goes "good things come to those who wait." In the case of the front door, I can unequivocally say that this is case. Gene and Mike finished the front door on Friday, and it could not have come out any better then it did. Above is a shot of the inside of the door where the windows meet the bottom mount on the inside for the exterior handle.


Here is the door in all its glory. The design came from an image of a door that was somewhat like this which I found on the web when I was just looking around. I really wanted something solid, black, and something that had enough windows to let light in; but not so many windows that we would be exposing ourselves to any theft risk. Once I found the image, I sent it to Gene who priced it out and confirmed he could indeed build something similar. This is the finished product. While this doesn't look exactly like the one that I found; I think its a better version of that door. The door is made of solid pieces of poplar that were notched and glued to form the main frame and insets of the door. Its a really solid and incredibly heavy door.


One of the main differences between the template and this door - the aluminum trim around the windows. This was not on the original design. This trim is only on the inside of the door, and is there to keep the glass insets in place and keep them from being kicked in if someone tried. The glass insets were done by a glass vendor gene knows, and were custom made just for this door. They are double thick and insulated to keep any of the exterior elements outside. What isn't pictured on any of these shots - the rice paper treatment to the windows that keep the outsiders from peeking in on the house. It was something I had purchased for the girls bathroom window to help obscure things to the outside, and it ended up working out very well.

The back door looks similar and will be going in on Monday. At that point we will be down to touch up painting and building a dog gate for the mudroom. We received our Flor tiles via UPS on Friday and those should be going in once we get things figured out with the dogs.

2nd Floor Tour

Once again I am going to let the pictures tell the story here. One small note: the front and back doors will be going on the house tomorrow! The house is nearing completion - until the spring when its time to clean up the exterior.

The First Floor

I am not going to say much about these and just let the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice it to say that the first floor is pretty much setup. All we are waiting on is the new front door which should be done this week. Enjoy.