Hick has been project-hopping at Bargain House. Some days Old Buddy calls in sick, so he works on things that he can do alone. When he has Old Buddy, they sometimes work together on things like putting down the flooring, or running pipes for plumbing. Other times, Hick designates things for Old Buddy to do, while he runs errands to pick up materials.
Monday, Hick sent a picture of the back door, where he made a laundry room by enclosing a section of the original back porch.
"New window installed by back door into laundry room." It's a cute little window. Enough to see out if somebody is at your back door, and onto the side street. Of course, there's a peephole in the back door now. And it looks much better painted.
I questioned Hick about that door when he put it in. "Isn't that an INSIDE door? It doesn't look like it will hold up to the weather." Hick said it is designed to be an outside door. That a coat of paint would protect it. It's a solid door, not a hollow-core door like used for interiors. And that most houses used to have wooden doors anyway, not metal doors like we have today.
A door's a door. It keeps your stuff in, and people out. Now there's a laundry room for the future occupants. Which I think is an improvement, considering the back porch originally looked like this:
I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have a house with a wooden back door in the laundry room than a back porch like this.
Now the battle starts again. Hick wants to leave this "addition" like it is, except putting a stain on the wood. I think it needs siding, which Hick refuses. Or at least to be painted light yellow to match the siding on the rest of the house, because like this, it sticks out like sore thumb.
"I WANT it to stand out, Val! The whole point is that you want people to notice a door."
"Then you should have painted the door some other color besides white! This section stands out, but not in a good way. I'll ask my people what they think! I'm pretty sure they will go for the siding, or at least paint that can match the house."
Of course, Hick will do what Hick wants to do. I just don't see the point of trying to make the rest of the house "nice" by putting in that cute little window, and then making this part look cobbled on. Prospective buyers are not going to know what an eyesore the back porch USED to be. They'll just notice what an eyesore it is now...
I vote for your idea Val!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hardly had to campaign at all. The picture speaks for itself.
DeleteIt looks unfinished this way. It needs siding. The door is just a door. It doesn't need to "stand out" to be noticed. The sidewalk leads to the door. No one will know how bad it looked before so nothing to compare to, therefore will appear unfinished to prospective buyer. It could be painted but with a complementary color, letting the door stand out, as I imagine it will be difficult to match the paint color. Ranee
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's not like this is a front door. The red front door on the Beauty Shop was a nice touch. This is just a back door. People don't pay attention to a back door facing the side street of a house.
DeleteYes, I've wondered about matching the paint. I thought the house was white, and just needed a good power-washing. The pale yellow is an issue. I'll suggest a contrasting paint, rather than a stain.
It definitely needs siding, not just a stain. I agree no point in being naked pretty- be dressed up! ( I endorse nudity otherwise, lol!)
ReplyDeleteHick certainly likes his "nudity!" He has some fascination with this wooden stuff that he insists is siding. I guess maybe it was really a style, maybe 20-30 years ago. He insisted on it for the back of The Pony's house, and got away with it. I still don't like it, but at least The Pony picked a darker stain, so it doesn't look like bare plywood.
DeleteIs the rest of the house going to be painted to cover that awful grey-green stain? If yes, then have siding on the new part in the same colour as the rest of the house. It will look so much neater all the same colour. What's this about metal doors? We have metal screen doors, but the main doors are wood, solid in homes that belong to actual people, but in places like the flats/units I live in, any repaired or replaced door is what ever is still good from any place that got demolished. And I just checked and I was wrong, my front and back doors are solid, but my bathroom door is a hollow core replacement with paint covering original handle and hinge placements.
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh! Hick could leave that "awful grey-green stain" on the house, so people can tell direction! Like a public service for the community. It's the north side, so like moss growing on the north side of a tree. But YES, that will be removed easily with Hick's power washer spraying water on the vinyl siding to clean it off.
DeleteHick thinks it will be hard to match that light yellow siding. It might be a discontinued color, or have faded through the years.
All of our exterior doors are metal. The kitchen and laundry room have the top half with a built-in window. The kitchen door has built-in mini blinds inside the window. The front door is solid, with elongated windows with warpy decorative glass on each side, like that little window in the picture. I think The Pony's front door is wood, but Hick keeps wanting to replace it with a fancier metal door.
This door on Bargain House is not under a porch, so I would have rather it been metal to stand up to the elements. Wood makes sense as long as there's not rain or snow eating away at it over the years.
Weatherproof paint should help with that.
ReplyDeleteYes, it IS outdoor paint that Hick used on the door. So there's that.
DeleteWell, of course you are right! I bet Hick would have built a fine cat housing unit instead of ordering the plastic one that we have. The cats have, so far, refused to occupy their new residence.
ReplyDeleteYou will be the first witness I call in the court of public opinion! Maybe your cats don't like plastic. Hick could indeed build a fine cat house. He built some cubby shelves that ended up under the end of our porch. The five cats basically ignored them, but the chickens loved to get up under there and lay eggs.
Delete