Exterior Doors and Columns

Last Monday, we had our exterior doors and columns delivered. We had temporary doors put in place until the brick was done. This was to avoid damage to the doors.

Those temporary doors were gorgeous! ha. Once the brick was complete and washed, we had the concrete poured for the porches. Then we could get the columns put up. The temporary posts holding up the porch roofs made me nervous.

All the exteriors doors have windows on them. I am big on natural light, and these doors give it.

We get nice views everywhere.

These doors will be painted, but I haven't decided on the inside color.

The outside will be a black-ish color, but I really like how white looks right now on the inside.

Once the doors were installed, we put on all the doorknobs to truly lock up the house. This is a job the trim carpenter should do, but we wanted to help with his workload, so I installed them all one morning before he got there. Mr. JCrew REALLY likes the hardware. It is very substancial.

We actually got the handlesets from Costco back in August 2014. It's Baldwin Prestige collection with Smart Key. After construction is over, I can change the key without calling a locksmith or replacing the whole set. I saw the handlesets at Costco a long time ago. I held out on buying it because I was waiting for the price to be cut. Mr. JCrew let me wait, but finally said I needed to buy them before they ran out. Sure enough, I bought them and the price went down. I did return them to get the reduced price. Then later, they were reduced again! I got a great deal! You never know what you'll find at Costco!

Little packets of screw hole covers were taped to the door.

Mr. JCrew and I spent Sunday plugging those holes up.

The porch columns are another favorite detail of mine. The front porch has 12" columns.

Mom's side porch has 10" columns.

And the back porch has 8" columns.

The installation of the back porch columns was incorrect the first time.

I looked at it long and hard to see if I could live with it and wouldn't have to ask them to change it. But when I looked from all sides, the even spacing felt like a jail to me. I couldn't keep it that way. Plus, this porch will be screened in. I have a vision of how the detail of the screened porch will balance the oddly spaced columns.

Because the columns are so large, I had the trim carpenter widen the headers so that the column was fully covered.

These columns came with a post already in the middle.

But because the header was "artificially" widened, the post needed to be shifted to one side of the post to get the weight distributed correctly.

By the sounds of it,  this was not our trim carpenter's favorite part. It took up a lot of his time and drove him to have a lunch time beer or two!

The inside trim is ALMOST complete. We have about two more days left. And what's left is the most exciting part!! And the interior paint has started! We're on the downhill slope now!

Exterior Doors

Since I mentioned interior doors, I wanted to move on to the exterior doors of the house.

If you remember the original floorplan of the house, you’ll notice how many exterior doors it had planned.

15 Exterior Doors!

Those doors were immediately eliminated when I started revising the plan to fit our needs. I did not want to go around checking 10 doors at night to make sure they were locked. I like only having to check 2 (front and back)!

Of course, our new plan is nothing like the original we started with. I intend to only share pieces of the home for the safety of my family.

 

In the new house, there are 4 exterior doors. The front door is designed on the floorplan to have sidelights. I’ve steered away from sidelights for safety reasons of someone breaking the glass and easily reaching the doorknob. But I also like the idea of letting more natural light come in.

To remain with privacy, I’ve selected a solid door. It won’t let light in, but it will add security.

The side porch serves as my mom’s entry for her visitors to use.

Because that door does not look directly into a room, I am wanting to let it be a door with a window in it.

I am particular about the looks of it. I love my friend, Ashley’s door. I would take that design in a heartbeat!

I am still undecided on making the glass seeded or clear. That will probably be a decision I make at the last minute and go with it.

The back doors that come off the family room are double French doors. I want those to be as unobstructed as possible. They will provide a great view of the backyard.

I am kind of picky on the style of this door as well. I found a great set for a great price at Lowes.

While browsing in a local HomeDepot, I did stumble across a set of Anderson French Doors that were a return item. Instead of being $3000+ they were marked down to $1775. They are beautiful! But the doors I’ve selected are well below that sale price, so I just don’t think it is worth it.

My builder did ask if we were partial to a brand, and I said, “No.” We don’t even need the doors to be wood (more maintenance). Our requirement is that it can be fiberglass or steel and paintable. I’m sure I will be painting these doors at some point.

What is your style of doors?

 

Interior Doors

I’m learning a lot in this building process. There are so many places to add character to a home, and some come with an expensive price tag. Throughout this building process, it has been my goal to make this home feel like it was built a century ago when a lot of thought when into a home design. Yet, at the same time, I enjoy the modern conveniences of air conditioning, washers and dryers and plumbing.

When it came to doors, they were the first thing that I thought brought instant character. Doors and doorknobs do it for me. I love the look of a doorknob with a long backplate.

The door itself can be many different styles. On this, I am not too picky. I like the shaker style.

I like traditional.

I like the craftsman.

I even like the beadboard.
 

However, I know the beadboard would grow old on me, so I am veering away from it. Although, I am instantly drawn to the craftsman door, my house is not the craftsman style and I fear I would regret choosing a style I only used on my doors.

However, I do like the craftsman door trim. I am not sure if I can use that style with a traditional style door.

When we met with the builder for our initial walk-thru of our wants, we mentioned that we would like solid-core interior doors. Our current house has hollow core interior doors. Hollow-core can be less expensive, but doesn’t feel solid and it lets more sound travel through. I could live with hollow-doors, but again, we were listing our wants.

The builder mentioned the cost that comes along with solid core doors. The price can be DOUBLE! We are all for saving money where it matters, so he gave us an alternative. We could splurge on solid-core doors for the bedrooms and use hollow-core for closets and such. That got instant approval from us.

We have a lot of storage spaces in the house, and the cost of solid-core doors would have added up on spaces where it didn’t matter.

Hopefully, this saving strategy can help someone else out as well.