Daddy's Door

We had to say good bye recently to a special part of our house.

Daddy made the door when he built our first dividing wall. I remember being so excited to finally have a door that can be fully closed.

I LOVED our dutch door.

The top half could be opened independently of the bottom half. With the bottom of the door closed and the top swung open, I could keep toddlers from escaping and still let in a good breeze. I often leaned on the bottom half of the door while chatting with a visitor or checking on the children.

In the summer we found out pretty quickly that open doors mean bugs. Bugs in your kitchen.

So we put up a large piece of mosquito netting to keep the airflow and at least discourage the flying bugs.

But with the installation of electricity came the decision to air condition our home. And our beautiful dutch door was NOT going to keep cool air in and hot muggy air out.

Not just that – but our new location had so many more species of insects. SO many bugs.

So we grabbed a storm door on craigslist and made the swap.

It actually modernized the look of our home. We went from Little House to Southern Porch in an afternoon. And YES, we kept the door for a future project.

Growing up, my mom had the front door open every day. All day. Rain or shine. The glass storm door was always there - just to keep the bugs out and the air conditioning in - but it wasn’t unusual to hear that door open and spring shut fifty times a day. It somehow extended our home’s square footage to include the entire front yard.

Over the past few years as I greatly encourage the children to spend most of their day outside, I see where our door is serving that same purpose. It’s not a barrier to the outside world, locking us in and blocking the outdoors. It’s a diving board for today’s next adventure. And thankfully, a much needed expansion to our small home.