a shortcut.

as much as we love the new front door, the new one at the rear of the house may take the cake. the existing door was one of my least favorite things about the house. it was just an aluminum sliding door. and it was ugly. the back of the house also faces southwest, so it would let in a lot of hot afternoon sun. we put some old blackout curtains we had from james's old apartment up to help with both situations, though it didn't completely solve either. 

but besides being ugly, it was also nearly non-functional. the door itself had no real locking mechanism. just a few holes roughly drilled into the aluminum framing, which was difficult to actually lock. and even then, if you pulled hard enough, it would still pop open. so not only could it not be locked or unlocked from the outside, it was also just not safe. we never advertised this before, but now that it's gone, we can show you our janky security system for that door:

needless to say, it was a pain in the butt to get in and out of, so we mostly avoided it. which was also a bummer because the garage (or hangar, as we call it) is behind the house, and it would be so much easier to be able to enter/exit the house this way, than to go all the way around to the front door. but that's exactly what we did for over a year and a half! but now it has all been resolved, and it is pretty, and functional, and convenient, and we love it!

as you can see, even with the sidelight, it is still smaller than the old door, so we have a bit of exterior wall to patch up. while the knob is from emtek like the hardware on the front, the lock itself is a kwikset smartcode lock, which means one less key to carry around or fumble with! and we can also hook it up to vivint, our home security system, so that we could lock/unlock it remotely, which certainly has its benefits!

door installation: day one.

remember how, six weeks ago, the doors arrived? well, now they are finally getting installed! our contractor showed up at 8am and quickly got started on the front door. by the time we left for work in the morning, the old door was gone, and the trim and old frame were in the process of being ripped out.

when we went home this afternoon to lock up, the front door was in, with our pretty new mortise entry lock. the door still needs to be stained and sealed. and trimmed out. and a dentil shelf added. but oh my goodness, it's made such a difference. no more of this janky business - it opens and closes and locks and unlocks so smoothly now! cant wait to see it stained..! 

i'll share lots more before, in-progress, and after photos when it's all said and done, but i couldn't help but share these. i'm so excited! it's finally happening! 

the arrival of the doors.

bright and early this morning, our new front entry door, back entry door and interior shaker door were delivered! this post is really more of a sneak peak than anything..

james sizing up the delivery truck.

now we have to wait until our contractor has time in his schedule to come by and actually install them - he's busy at the moment, so it won't be for another month or two!! i am very upset about this, as this project has already been almost six months in the making, but that's another story entirely.

how gorgeous are these doors? laying horizontally is the interior door for a new interior wall we are going to put in. we will eventually be replacing every interior door in the house with one of these. the upright one with the sidelite is the back entry. behind it, that you can't see, is the front entry. which is a bigger door without a sidelite, and an additional dentil shelf. none of the doors are stained yet, so we still have to figure out what the stain will be. i'm thinking something dark, but not-too-dark, and warm, but not-too-warm. that's descriptive enough, right?

crystal knob for the interior door (doesn't it just make you swoon?!?!)

entry handle set for the front door (can you spot the craftsman-y details through the packaging?)

the doors are from simpson, the palomar ii (for front and back) and a five panel shaker. we found it a lovely coincedence that the name exterior door we fell in love with is the same name as the hotel we we stayed in when we got married (the palomar hotel, washington, dc).

the pretty hardware is from emtek. the old town crystal knob we ordered is as pictured above, but the arts and crafts full length entry set we got is in flat black, so the hammered look is more subtle. i just can't wait until all this work is done..!