The Pink Door

The Pink Door For years whenever I would give anyone directions on how to get to our house the last direction would be, “and we’re the only house on the street with a pink door.” When we bought the house the door was blue. I liked it so I’m not quite sure why I decided to change it. I must have seen a rose colored entry on a house somewhere and liked it so when we repainted the house I decided on a change. You don’t see many pink doors so it was also fun being a bit different. Through the years each spring I would buy flowers to hang near our front entrance and would always make sure that they matched our door. Otherwise I never gave it a second thought. I mean who spends much time thinking about their door? You buy it, install it and forget about it. Until you need a new one. For a few years now we’ve known we needed a new one. We could see daylight along the bottom that crept in along with the cold air. We had already replaced all of our windows and had seen what a difference that made in our heating and cooling bills, but somehow we kept putting off buying a new door. But then we noticed that the sliding door to the porch needed replacing as well so it was time to think doors. We got the names of a few contractors and were thrilled to find out that the cost of replacing both doors and a fence in the yard wouldn’t force us into selling a child (or a dog). I was happy because we were in the midst of spiffing up our place for Lisa and Matt’s wedding and I thought a new front door would add a bit of class to the joint. That was the good news. The bad news was two fold: first, our chosen contractor considered us small potatoes. He would have to find time in his schedule to fit us in between his larger jobs and that wouldn’t happen quickly. Second, we would have to choose a door style. I didn’t mind the first as much as the second. Shatz and I usually make quick decisions when it comes to major purchases. But if the purchase involves an aesthetic element, we’re doomed. We once spent days choosing wallpaper for the small bathroom and kitchen of our first condo. I ended up sobbing over books of wallpaper, visions of flowers and stripes galloping through my brain. So I told Steve, “I want a door just like the old one only I think I want to change the color. This time I want a red door.” In reply he dumped a pile of catalogues on me and said, “Choose.” It was then that I found out that there is no such thing as a simple door. I sat poring over the books in increasing frustration, deciding finally to drive around the neighborhood and look at doors. That proved to be quite an education. Have you ever noticed people’s front doors? The range of colors is rather limited, mostly dark, muted shades except for a really lovely lilac door on Norfolk Street that I’ve always admired. Everyone plays it safe when it comes to color. But there are myriads of styles. There are doors with lots of glass, no glass, a bit of glass or stained glass. There are brass fittings, iron hinges, mail slots, no slots, kick plates, screen doors. There are stained wood doors, doors with mosaics, doors with knockers. There are wreath hangers, no hangers, signs, and door bells. I was getting very confused. I went home and chose a door as close to the style that we already had and pointed it out to Steve, “That one. In red.” However it turned out that my chosen door was in a catalogue that one of the contractors that Steve had not chosen had left behind. I learned that each contractor only dealt with certain manufacturers and that the door that I wanted only came in white. When I begged Shatz to ask our contractor if he could get it in red, it turned out we could---for a price that was equal the price of the door. Or we could paint it ourselves. Remembering some of our less than successful paint jobs there was no way that we were going to dabble in red. So white it would be. The day our new door was installed was only the beginning. We had to take down everything that had been on our old door: our number, knocker, curtains, mezuzah, wreath holder—how could there be so much on a door?—and then put it all back on the new one. We had to buy a lock and install it. And we ended up painting it anyway because the white paint that it came with was pretty cheap looking. So it took a day to install it and two weeks to finish the job. The last thing I did was hang a summery wreath to give the door some color. Already I missed the pink. But it is nice and new and no errant breezes come shooting into the house. And the next time we call in professional painters to paint the house I will ask for, “One red door please!” It’s still fun being different.