New Front Doors

It’s difficult to discern from this photo, but this is an oversized door. 42″ X 96″ or perhaps it was 42″ X 84″…it was one of those. And for whatever reasons, Simpson & Buffelen did not make this otherwise very common 2020 wagon-wheel door in those dimensions back in those days. So when the client showed us the door model she wanted; we simply contacted a local sash shop to fabricate the door.

When the client saw this door installed, she loathed it. Yes, that’s what we’re telling you. Gordon remembers she actually spanked herself on the back of one of her hands with her other hand and said “bad girl,” “bad girl!” Why would we want to relate a story like this? Uh…because it really happened? And because we hope that it serves as a cautionary tale in some fashion regarding perhaps giving careful thought or seeking counsel, input and/or advice regarding ordering custom doors? To this particular client’s credit, she never for an instant attempted to blame us or anyone else for whatever the source of her displeasure was. But we suspect it had to do with what the dimensions did proportionately to this otherwise standard door model. But it was never really explained fully. And we were reluctant to dwell on whatever it was for what we presume are obvious reasons.

This was an upscale split-level home of some sort in Lake Oswego. This was not your stereotypical neighborhood that one might expect to find a slew of split-level homes in, which the fact that it was in L.O. should tell you, if you know anything about this region. So…you might understand that when this client didn’t like the swing of the door as it related to the stairs just inside to the interior of the door, he didn’t merely change the swing, he changed the entire door and sidelight assembly configuration as shown in the next photo.

The same model door, just a bit more proportionately balanced to the adjoining exterior walls perhaps, although the previous configuration didn’t look bad in our opinion. It apparently solved our client’s dislike of the traffic flow problems going in and out of the house as it related to the stairwells. Remember, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.