April Showers & Photo Play

This is the south side of our house. That bank of windows that looks like it was a garage door opening in a former life? Well, yes, it was a garage door opening. That super skinny door to the left of it? Non-standard width requiring custom made doors. Given the brick work around the door frame, it appears to be original to the house. 

So what does this have to do with the April showers in the title of this post? I'll tell you. This side of the house takes a pounding when it rains. The wind usually comes from the south, across miles of open fields, and slams the rain into this wall horizontally. What you can't see in this picture is the wood rotting around those big windows. Or the fungus growing out of the split window sills. Or the half broken storm door that doesn't close when the rain swells the frame. Or the solid door behind it that we suspect is an interior door rather than an entry door. And let's not overlook the orange bucket. It covers the well cap. Yes, that's right, the well cap sticks up in the path to the door.

The next big house project is to do something about all this. We could replace the rotten wood and custom order a new storm door and call it a day, or take the opportunity to improve a bad design.

What I'm thinking is to turn the overly narrow doorway into a window and shift the entry to the right. This would not only provide a door that meets code requirements, it would allow us to enter the house while actually carrying a market bag or two all without circumventing the well cap. It would also open up space inside to create an entry area with room for removing shoes and hanging jackets, which we lack with the given configuration. The other key is to brick in around whatever design we settle on, both to blend the look into the existing design of the house and for weather protection.

Or how about something like this? Yep, I'm still in the dreaming, playing stages, unhindered by budget. We'll see what happens when numbers enter the picture. For now, though, I'm having too much fun with Photoshop.