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- Jan 31, 2018
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- Keir Hardy
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The houses in our road were all built in the early sixties and had the same front doors.
There's a brick arch with a porch behind it about 2ft deep. A good idea when you had milk and papers delivered.Then a small step-up to a glass and timber front door.
By the end of the sixties many had an arched second wooden door frame added, to the front, thus effecting a shallow "airlock." The door had to open outwards, as the porch wasn't deep enough for it to open inwards. Over time these started to rot and were replaced with double-glazed units.
When ours needed replacing about twenty-odd years ago, my wife said, "Why don't we get rid of the inner door at the same time?"
This required me to build up the floor of the porch to the level of the hall. But it was worth it. It also meant the new front door could open inwards. It isn't much, but the extra room made a lot of difference. As the porch had bare brick walls. I had to get a guy in to plaster it to meet the interior walls and plaster the arch. The ceiling didn't plastering, as k#it had been done before the door frame had been built. We changed the carpet at the same time and twice since.
If you weren't aware of the alteration, you wouldn't know that wasn't an original feature. I've not noticed any other house with this feature.
The original inner door would have been where the two doors of our shoe cupboard meet. If it were still there, there wouldn't be enough room for this cupboard.
There's still only this much space between the cupboard and the bottom stair.
Because the door opens inwards, there's no visible unsightly hinges.
This post was prompted by the fact that we've new neighbours moving in across the road shortly. Today, a double glazing company came and ripped out a perfectly good double-glazed outer door and replaced the wooden inner door with a double glazed unit.
The people next door to them who moved in last year did exactly the same thing.
As I often say, each to their own. But it seems strange no one has thought of adding this useful space.
There's a brick arch with a porch behind it about 2ft deep. A good idea when you had milk and papers delivered.Then a small step-up to a glass and timber front door.
By the end of the sixties many had an arched second wooden door frame added, to the front, thus effecting a shallow "airlock." The door had to open outwards, as the porch wasn't deep enough for it to open inwards. Over time these started to rot and were replaced with double-glazed units.
When ours needed replacing about twenty-odd years ago, my wife said, "Why don't we get rid of the inner door at the same time?"
This required me to build up the floor of the porch to the level of the hall. But it was worth it. It also meant the new front door could open inwards. It isn't much, but the extra room made a lot of difference. As the porch had bare brick walls. I had to get a guy in to plaster it to meet the interior walls and plaster the arch. The ceiling didn't plastering, as k#it had been done before the door frame had been built. We changed the carpet at the same time and twice since.
If you weren't aware of the alteration, you wouldn't know that wasn't an original feature. I've not noticed any other house with this feature.
The original inner door would have been where the two doors of our shoe cupboard meet. If it were still there, there wouldn't be enough room for this cupboard.
There's still only this much space between the cupboard and the bottom stair.
Because the door opens inwards, there's no visible unsightly hinges.
This post was prompted by the fact that we've new neighbours moving in across the road shortly. Today, a double glazing company came and ripped out a perfectly good double-glazed outer door and replaced the wooden inner door with a double glazed unit.
The people next door to them who moved in last year did exactly the same thing.
As I often say, each to their own. But it seems strange no one has thought of adding this useful space.