Odd Ends at Bargain House

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...