The Doors

This is the photo that started it all.  Started my obsession with orange doors.  It is fair to say that this photo also kicked off our interest in light colored homes, but it's the door that earned this post.  Roberta was never 100% in love with the idea but I did win her over and we were going to have an orange door.

Were.

It seems a shame that for months I've been imagining an orange door on this house and won't be having one, so the least I can do is pay a mini-tribute to the idea.  As I've stated before we are planning a white and gray paint scheme on a facade that is geometrically simple (think logarithmic graph paper) and clean.  The thought of having a pop of color to welcome a visitor is appealing.  I took to the internet to find examples of this put to good use, which wasn't hard to do.  And it confirmed that I wasn't the only crazy one.  Here are a few more example of how this was pulled off with success.

Great door, not to mention entry steps and landscaping...

This door makes me curious to discover what's behind it...  we plan to use a solid panel door like this to access the mechanical and storage room.

Different architectural style, but color scheme works.

Big fan of the door, but blue paint and white trim make it a little too choppy.

Our plan was to use the standard doors our builder offered to save some hassle and a few $$.  This was a full lite door with a large glass pane in the center.  We planned to paint the door panel orange like the example below, and use this for all entry doors (garage, mud room and front entry).

But when the doors showed up on site last week we had a change of heart.  The panel had a false wood grain embossed in the finish, and ornate trim molding framing the window.  It was obvious if we hung this on the house it would clash with our modern aesthetic.  So we began the hunt for a replacement.  The front door is large at 42" x 96" and that limited our shopping options.  And we discovered that getting a contemporary full-lite door of this size was more expensive that we expected.  Throughout the project we have made budget adjustments for items that are "high touch" - that is, we invested in the items we would use on a daily basis.  The front door certainly qualifies, plus it is the focal point of the front elevation.  Thankfully, our builder said he would find an alternate full-lite door at the same cost we could use on the secondary entry doors.  Free from the burden of having to buy 5 doors we started looking at more options for the main entry door.

It didn't take Roberta long to find a winner - we are going to use this Aluminum door and door frame.  It should match the exterior lighting and the garage door we selected (more on that below).  The bummer is the door has a 5 week lead time so we have the full-lites installed until it shows up.

Future front door.

Here are a couple shots of the "placeholder" doors:

We also have the garage door.  It was custom ordered because the garage width is not standard.  We are installing an aluminum roll-up with glass panes like like this one.  Since we plan to make the garage a play room for the kids this allow plenty of natural light into the space.

As for the house itself, things have been slightly delayed.  After 4 years of drought it appropriately starts raining when we need it to be dry.  The exterior paint is next to go, and the the Galvalume roof will be installed..  But neither of these can happen until the materials dry out from some heavy rains last week. We're looking for 5 days of dry weather before they can begin - it's been 2 clear days and the next 3 days are 20% probability of precipitation...  Hopefully next weekend we're posting shots of a painted house with a roof!