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Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
A forever or two ago, we found a Victorian screen door in our attic, but I never thought too hard about re-installing it. We already had a modern screen door on the back door, and a screen door on the front of the house seemed vaguely strange to me in these modern times.
But then we saw the double screen doors our neighbors built for their upstairs balcony, and our minds starting buzzing around that old screen door of ours. In this blissful month of open windows and crisp breezes, it sure would be nice to open both front and back doors and catch some of that delicious weather inside our house.
Besides, hearing the creak and slap of a real, wood screen door opening and shutting made me nostalgic for the good old days. My maternal grandparents have a little house with a front porch across the front and, once upon a time, an old-fashioned screen door.
Among the many disconcerting things that have changed over the years at Mamaw and Papaw’s house is the replacement of the wood screen door with a metal one. It just doesn’t have the same creak, and it doesn’t do that fwhap-fwhap-fwhap triple-slap when it bangs to a close behind a running child. No one there says, “Don’t slam the door!” anymore.
Darwin must have similar memories because Sunday afternoon he sneaked off up to the attic with a tape measure and checked out our screen door. Then he reported to me that it’s a perfect fit for the front door. I eagerly raced back up to the attic with him, and we carried the surprisingly heavy door downstairs.
We discovered the hinges and knob (both replacements for the missing originals) were on the wrong side, so the door must’ve originally been on the back door. But it fits the front door perfectly, so that’s where it’s going.
The door is in such perfect condition I suspect it has spent many years hanging out in the attic. All we have to do is get some hinges – Darwin wants spring hinges – and a little handle. We’ll also fill the holes made by the replacement knob and repaint the whole thing black.
Because I must mention the screen door is black. And it has only one coat of paint on it, so the obvious conclusion is it has always been black. Yes, Scooby, it’s a CLUE!
Does this mean our house’s trim was once black? Or is it only a screen door thing? Seems like all the screen doors around here are black.
Either way, it’s a little piece of something to go on when we choose paint colors for the shutters and trim in the next year or two.
And I’m in love with this screen door. It’s so deliciously Victorian and shows what a little contrasting color can do for a porch:
Maybe we can get it hung in time for the Tour of Homes, which is next weekend. Though our house isn’t on the tour, everyone in Eutaw dolls their homes up a bit in anticipation of the crowds of sight-seers, in hopes of making people fall in love with our town and come back to stay.
I think this screen door just might do the trick. Just looking at it makes you want to move to Eutaw, right?
That is a FANTASTIC screen door. I really like the crisp black against white.
And I agree, the sound of hissing pneumatics is a poor replacement for the loud smack of wood against wood.
What a wonderful find. You’re so lucky it fits perfectly. You’ll enjoy the cross breeze and the awesome fwhap sound of it closing. It looks great.
It’s perfect! And they sell those hinges with the springs built in at Banks & Co., so if you can just send that handsome man of yours over there Saturday and get that fabulous door hung! I am so excited for you! You even get to skip replacing the screen! An easy, instant gratification project.
You found that door in your attic? That’s incredible! You’d pay an incredible amount of money to buy something like that made today.
I really like the black against the white, too. I see a lot of houses in magazines that might have white or some other color of trim, with dark or black mullions between the window panes.
If we are talking about screen door then the first thing which comes to our mind is, it should be simple but attractive and people must say that it is looking really nice after they have a look at it am i right?
The screen doors are good but dont you think that these are are odd now ? because there are new styles or doors available in market such like you can see some examples here.