Welcome to our home

Before we even put an offer on our house we knew there were two main things we needed/wanted to change - one was the roof, the other was the front door. Our front door had a few problems, the main one being that it looked more like a back door than an acceptable entrance to a home, and also the fact that nearly half of it was covered in glass (that's not to mention the paint chipping off, and the fact that air came through it like a wind tunnel).

Bogdan's experience of front doors in Ukraine are that they should be solid, sturdy, and a little foreboding. When you have glass in your door, it's like inviting a thief to break the glass, stick his hand in, unlock the door and let himself in.

I, on the other hand, spent all of my childhood living behind a huge beautiful glass door and - thankfully - never had one thief let himself in. (The alarm system was probably a bit of a deterrent).

This difference of experience might have led us to want different things out of doors---and then, ultimately, to one of those compromise situations that happen a couple times during a marriage---but such was not the case.

Back in Baton Rouge, we had the unfortunate experience of a thief breaking down our back door (funny he didn't break the glass and just stick his hand in, these thieves just never know how to operate efficiently). He was in for a bit of surprise as the alarm system whooped and hollered at him, letting him know loud and clear, "the police are on the way, you idiot!"

Suffice it to say, I am now on the "sturdier the better" team when it comes to doors.

For the past 4 months (I can't believe we've lived here 4 months already!) we looked at doors at Lowe's and Home Depot, at the Habitat Re-Store, called lumber yards and salvage places and heard over and over again that doors just aren't made that size anymore. Go figure.

A custom built door would cost a fortune.

Instead, we called up the local handy man and asked him if he could help us. So we bought a standard size door, and he came and cut it to fit, building up the frame a little and installing the door and the new handle and dead bolt.

Bogdan spent the next day staining the wood and when it was finished we were more than pleased with the results.

Now we have a sturdy door, with a nice new dead bolt lock, and hopefully those thieves will stay the heck away from our house.