Curb Appeal: Front door Reveal

Originally updating or creating( ha ha)  some curb appeal was on my to do list but wasn't a priority.  Despite being a pain to lock at times and it's contribution to our dark entry, I was prepared to leave the front door to a later project. We desperately needed a new back door as it no longer locked,  pieces were falling off the brittle frame, we could see daylight and feel the breeze. Yep, time for a new back door. I'll reveal those in a future post.   Since we were having the back doors done, we decided we should get the front done at the same time.

Who knew that deciding on doors would be such a hard decision.  It took me months to select a company to install and then to choose the brand, style, material, colour  and configuration of the front door and sidelite.   I couldn't decide between a 3/4 light or a full light door and I couldn't decide on colour. I wanted a funky coloured door like all the beautiful doors i've seen on other blogs and pinterest, but non of the colours looked right to me. We decided on a black full light flush glass fiberglass door by Therma Tru with brushed nickle harware by Emtek.  We switched the sidelite to the other side and changed the swing of the door so it opened towards the kitchen instead of our living room. We already got a start on the curb appeal by installing these light fixtures from Restoration Hardware. Here is before .

Here is a progress pic. There was issues with the sill. The new door sill was wider than the old one and required additional support underneath. We aren't sure why the front didn't have one because the back had a stone sill. We were given the option of finishing it off with aluminum or having a concrete sill poured for extra money. The installer suggested that additional support would be a better option instead of just capping it with aluminum. I didn't like either option so we asked the installers to leave it and we would find a solution. We didn't want to rush to a decision then regret it later. It was a tough decision to leave it unfinished at the time. It was extremely disappointing to have the front door installed but not complete. I was also a bit disappointed that we weren't made aware of the possibility of issues with the sill so we could have been prepared with a stone sill. I was extremely impressed with our installer tho. He did an amazing job, showed that he took pride in his work and that he was very skilled. I appreciated his honesty when he told us that additional support for the sill in his opinion would be the best option.

Here is the completed new front door with the stone sill. The limestone sill is a good match to the original stone sills that  are below the windows and the back door . The stone sill should be a whole other post. Thankfully I have a very handy husband who was able to create this beautiful sill that looks like it was always here .p.s. ignore the mat. It will be changed eventually.

I love the new door. The door opens and closes so smoothly unlike the previous wood door. Locking the old door was like like a wrestling match.  A full lite door was the perfect choice for us. I love how the light floods into the entryway and it no longer feels dark. It was also the right choice to reverse the sidelite and door.  Initially I was worried that changing the configuration of the door /sidelight and the door swing direction would be difficult to get use to. It feels like it has always been this way.

We have a long way to go with our curb appeal. I think this is a good start tho.