Front door

Do we really need to talk about the front door? Yes, we do. The front door is the first thing people (and you) will see when they come to your house. So it should give a good impression without breaking the bank (in case you didn't know, these things can be expensive, like, a few thousand bucks).

HEIGHT

Entrance doors come in two basic heights: 80" (standard) or 96". There are lots of front doors in the standard height. And they are not expensive. But they do not look that nice. In my case, on the whole front door side of the house, there are no windows or architectural decorations. So I definitely needed something bigger to offset the boring blank wall.

The thing is: I could not find anything in the 96" height at online home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.). They could do a custom order, though, but there were more choices at  El & El Wood Product, so we ended up purchasing a Masonite door from them.

MATERIAL

The basic options are: wood, steel, and fiberglass. Fiberglass seems like the most trouble-free material, so that's what I chose.

TEXTURE

Fiberglass doors comes in two variations: smooth or wood grain. It's a matter of personal preference, but I think wood grain texture looks nicer.

GLASS

I spent a lot of time contemplating whether I should get a door with glass or without. Again, this is a matter of personal preference. My choice of two front door finalists included one with a glass window insert at the top 1/3. It's good I did not get it. Glass is another extra that you need to take care of or can go wrong. It somewhat complicates painting. It needs to be cleaned. It can have quality control issues. And it can break. Also, the more glass a door has, the more expensive it is. There are some really nice glass doors, but the price range hover over $2K, and my budget for the exterior door was around $1K (I think mine was a couple hundred more, but I have no regrets).

I was thinking about getting a sidelite and I'm glad I didn't because these things get really pricey (could've doubled the cost of the door).

PAINT

You can buy an already painted door or paint it yourself. Here is a $300 advice: get an already painted door. First, you will not be able to paint a door as well as they do it at the factory. You will spend over $100 on paint and supplies. And it will take a lot of time.

I wanted to get a pained door, but due to supply issues, it would've taken several weeks to get one, so we ordered a primed door instead. Big mistake. 

First, it's hard to find a correct paint kit. I ended up buying a Therma-Tru Same-Day Stain Kit hoping that it would work faster. Same-day, my foot! I spent almost three days painting it because it's not as simple as they show in the instructional video. And it's not as simple because the instructions assume ideal conditions. The paint would not dry in 6 hours (as promised). Don't know why, but it took longer. Second, painting is a pain. The paint brush sheds like a Maine Coon in spring. You paint, then wait 10 hours for the paint to dry, than you find out some imperfections that you need to paint over. Meaning: waiting another 10 or so hours. Then you need to apply top coat. Twice. On each side. Not fun.

And I haven't mentioned the challenge of picking the paint color. Yes, it's a challenge, because the colors in the online photos are not exactly what they look like in real life. I was expecting the color I chose (English Walnut) to look a bit more greenish, but it ended up being almost black. It does not look bad, but again, not exactly what I expected.

So, if you have a choice, save yourself from the hassle and just get a painted door.

MISCELLANEOUS

When drilling a peephole, make sure you do it at a proper height. My contractor drilled one for his (and mine) heights and it was great, but my mother-in-law needed a step stool to reach it. So we had to add one more. It looks kind of cool, though. And it's convenient for both taller and shorter people. But if you only want one peephole, stick with a lower height.

NEXT: TRENCHES

PREVIOUS: A CASE FOR LVP

FIRST: INTRODUCTION