I love my front door. Love it, love it, love it. It's not the front door that came on 1434 when we purchased it. I clearly remember when Matt & I found 1434 on the internet when we were looking at buying our first home. In traditional fashion we each commented on our likes/dislikes of what we saw in the internet pictures, and I highly remember my comment regarding the ugly green front door and saying "that's the first thing I would replace." The door was the epitome of the 1970's. My grandma had the exact front door on her brick ranch. I hated the door and to this day I still hate the door. For some unbeknownst reason many of the bungalows on our street have this front door. It deeply saddens me that the original front doors of these homes were stripped away and replaced with these ugly 1970's front doors. Needless to say, the front door did not get replaced until August of last year (08). Yes, I lived with that ugly door for 3 entire years. I think I deserve a reward for this. It was very difficult to find the front door that I wanted. I wanted a traditional Mission style front door with the leaded glass panes at the top. I found companies that made reproduction Mission front doors for much money. I decided if I wanted this style of front door I would have to search architectural antique stores and salvage stores to find it. And I did, for a long, long, time. I thought my best shot would be finding one at Conner's here in Lincoln. When we had went in there and explained what we were looking for we were told that they very seldom get Mission front doors because they are very popular right now and most bungalows are retaining their original details and not replacing features such as front doors. I was bummed! I thought I was going to have to live with the ugly 1970's front door until we sold our home. But fate intervened- I stumbled across the website to Scherer's Architectural Antiques, and ****yes, my new front door! Not only did they have the EXACT front door I had been searching for, it was the exact needed dimensions! And to top it off, they had the exact french doors that we needed to complete our upstairs master bedroom but that we couldn't find because of the odd dimensions! The stars were aligned! I made the contact with Scherer's and days later owned my wonderful new doors! While we were at Scherer's home, we also found doors for the rest of our entire house, all of them salvaged from historical homes that were torn down. Our front door was rescued by Manuel from a bungalow over on Randolph Street. The french doors were rescued from a home on the corner of 27th & South St. that was torn down to make way for the library parking lot (they were actually side panels in a larger door scheme, hence the odd dimensions). Not only did we get our front door for a steal, Manuel also had the matching screen door set with removable screen/window panes that he threw in with the front door! It was the door set I had been searching for! Fate was on my side for this one!
The actual installation of the doors is another story. I love my husband, and I am very grateful for his hard work and installing new doors on every doorway of our home (minus the back door) per my freakness of hating hollow core doors. Matt refinished all of the doors that we bought from Scherer's and I love that all of our doors were rescued from within the community. They all have a unique history and story. Matt hates hanging doors. We will just leave it at that. And we will also hope that our next house has age appropriate doors so that he won't have to hang any doors, ever again. I also wish I could understand why anyone in their right mind would replace wonderful historic doors with cheap, nasty hollow core doors. What are people thinking????
So conclusion of the post, I love my doors, especially my front door!
About those hollowcore doors: your house was built in '51, so those hollowcore interior doors were almost certainly the originals. It would've been built around the same time as G-ma's house, actually, and that's what was in vogue throughout the 50s and 60s. Your house is a bungalow by floorplan, but 50s bungalows would not normally have been tricked out with mission or arts & crafts details. It was the beginning of hollowcore doors, linoleum and chrome kitchen details, simple and narrow wood trim, etc.
ReplyDeleteYour original front door was probably a hollowcore job, too. Most homeowners started replacing those in the 70s for security reasons--they're so easy to kick in.
The pics look fantastic. The new doors are a major improvement, and the beveled glass on the front is so pretty. Keep the photos coming!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the link to Scherer's--it inspired me to check out their website, where I found a great rug for our dining room. Manuel said to tell you hello!
@Fluxus, We've been through a few of our neighbor's houses that were built around the same time as ours and they do feature solid wood doors throughout their interiors. Plus, our house used to have nice gum-wood trim throughout, but was mostly removed and replaced with pine during a remodel—presumably when they covered the arched doorway that leads to our current office. So, it's a safe bet that our house too once had solid doors at one point in time. Although, the front door may have been original since it did match the rest of the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a kick to post your old door... please do! But your new ones are glorious, and very shiny! Front doors make first impressions on visitors. Looking at yours, I know a lot of people would want to be invited in!
ReplyDelete- Katie Nicoll