Home accessories: Make an Entrance: Renovation Diary

The story of our new doors began a year ago, when my husband decided to remodel the front porch.

Below, you can see an original photo of Rattlebridge. (Just for the record, Bandwidth and I liked the gable. My friend Allison suggested we add a copper roof, which was a great idea.) Dr. Will had another opinion. He was so unhappy with the porch, he wanted to sell the house.

He seldom has strong opinions about design, so this was significant.

Before:

The porch was ripped off, and a dinky one was added.

An inexpensive Sun window was added by my contractor, but it was too small, among other problems.

Another Sun window was added--a larger one with a fussy, extremely white grille.

It overpowered the smaller windows. Suddenly the new window had become an undesirable focal point. I showed photos to friends, along with a few experts in the field, nd they all said the window was an eyesore; but the porch was even worse. So I set aside the window problem for a while.

At this point, I sent photos to my friend Susan, from Between Naps on the Porch,

and she showed me photos of her gorgeous porch--it has a classic triple step-down.

I showed the photo to my builder. Using Susan's photos, the porch was re-fashioned.

At Susan's suggestion, the pea gravel was replaced...

... with pavers in a herringbone pattern. Love!

Now it was time to think about the accent window.

As I said, everyone hated it for a variety of reasons.

As one friend said, it was a "Goldilocks" window. The grilles were too thick on the outside, clashing with the small Anderson grilles. Yet they matched the thickness of the spider web arch.

Speaking of that arch, it didn't reach the top of the window. One friend said the design was busy. Another said it should be bigger. We all agreed that the grilles were just too, too white.

We decided to live with it and see if the window would grow on us.

But the thick grilles in the accent window became a focal point. That's all anyone saw! A wise friend pointed out that it was far better for the grilles to be uniform on the exterior windows than to have them match inside the house. Curb appeal and all that, right?

After a year of hating the window, we contacted Marvin Windows/Doors. They came up with a design. I didn't want to lose the pretty spider web design over the front door, but after a family discussion, we decided to replace the original door and re-purpose it.

Here is an exterior view of the new window. From the exterior, the grilles are all the same size--and color. However, the window is too low. The top of the arch should align with the tops of the other windows. Unfortunately, when the window was installed, I was not consulted. Nor was I given options. Most certainly, I would not have given approval for the masons to add bricks or a keystone. Marvin Windows is looking into the situation, and in an email they stated that the window should have been level with the other windows--unless my contractor or I specifically wanted the window to be lower. My husband has already consulted an architect and structural engineers.