Many years ago, a newly married couple with which we are very well acquainted had their first Christmas together. As they were decorating their tree, each ornament from each of the two (previously separate) collections would be unpacked. A pattern soon emerged in which the husband would examine the revealed item from his wife’s collection and then say flatly: “in the back”. I think it applies more generally than just Christmas trees to assume that the less desirable or attractive items tend to go “in the back.”

Well, our main entrance, the one with the wow factor, is actually at the ‘back’ of the house. There are several reasons for this.

1. the front of our house faces a semi-busy street and is set back 75 feet from the curb
2. the back entrance is designed as a zero-clearance entrance for family who need an accessible entrance
3. we like the idea of sharing the swanky guest entrance with our everyday family entrance (as Susanka suggests in her books)
4. all our friends and family park on the side street or in the driveway and have for YEARS entered our house through either the gross garage or the back porch
5. In fact, NO ONE uses our front door except sales people and the delivery people (pizza and Amazon mostly)

I had a tough time convincing Jim that we actually did NEED a front door. He was ready to just paint one on the outside wall because we used it so little. In fact, next to the front door in the house we had torn down was where we had the litter box because that was the best out-of-the-way place for it with minimal traffic.

So the plan is to have a very nice door on the back, much more similar to what someone else would put on the front of their house for ‘curb appeal.’ We will have a decent front door, but mostly it will be a fun pop of color on an otherwise ordinary door. Even the light fixture at the back entrance will be upgraded from what is at the front.

It’s all about choices and because we’re building a custom home that works for our family we get to make these decisions. But we’re not painting on a fake door- because that’s just weird.