slo’s THURSDAY 6/15 poll - Which Door?

[tvguy]

Call me old fashioned then! We have 4 doors on various levels/areas of the back of the house. We built almost 10 years ago now.

Well, I have two sliding doors on the back, but they don't have keyed locks on them so they aren't for entry.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My mom worked graveyard shift for many years and she normally went out the back door to the back door of the garage. No door directly from the house to the garage. She would get in her car in the garage, and only when locked in the car in the garage would she open the big garage door. But the back door was built to be used, it had it's own door bell with a unique ring. We used to get milk delivered in the 1960's and they delivered to the back door and rang the bell.
My house has a side garage door that we never use, I have it blocked off for security reasons. And we have a door from the garage right into the kitchen that we use frequently.

And certainly there may be reasons why someone leaves the house even if it's inconvenient due to a shift so different than others in the house.

I remember you describing the doorbell and everything in the past but that was a different era.

I get it if it's like the PP who discussed how the garage was built with access to the house and in your parent's house the garage had no interior access to the house but I can 100% understand why the person who bought your parents house removed the backdoor (you seemed surprised at that with the exclamation point). It's not an overly used feature of the house (and in particular with your parent's house with already having two other ways to get outside with the sliding doors in the family and living room) and adds an additional access point for a potential safety risk. Chances are even if the house hadn't been remodeled to physically remove the door it's unlikely it would have been used still.

The only time I ever really hear of people using back doors frequently is when there is essentially a bedroom or a full on apartment-style living space (and this is usually talking about a walk out basement) which is actually being utilized as a separate entry for that person using the space. Like my husband lived for more than 8 months in Maryland in a basement apartment of someone's home. The homeowner had a path leading to the back of the house for the walk out basement and my husband entered with his own key the sliding glass door. This was the same story for when my sister-in-law lived with her parents who remodeled their walk out basement to put a full kitchen in there, redo a space to make a bedroom and then sister-in-law and her then husband entered the house primarily from the door (which was an actual door), there was a path built from the driveway to the backyard.

 

[tvguy]

And certainly there may be reasons why someone leaves the house even if it's inconvenient due to a shift so different than others in the house.

I remember you describing the doorbell and everything in the past but that was a different era.

I get it if it's like the PP who discussed how the garage was built with access to the house and in your parent's house the garage had no interior access to the house but I can 100% understand why the person who bought your parents house removed the backdoor (you seemed surprised at that with the exclamation point). It's not an overly used feature of the house (and in particular with your parent's house with already having two other ways to get outside with the sliding doors in the family and living room) and adds an additional access point for a potential safety risk. Chances are even if the house hadn't been remodeled to physically remove the door it's unlikely it would have been used still.

The only time I ever really hear of people using back doors frequently is when there is essentially a bedroom or a full on apartment-style living space (and this is usually talking about a walk out basement) which is actually being utilized as a separate entry for that person using the space. Like my husband lived for more than 8 months in Maryland in a basement apartment of someone's home. The homeowner had a path leading to the back of the house for the walk out basement and my husband entered with his own key the sliding glass door. This was the same story for when my sister-in-law lived with her parents who remodeled their walk out basement to put a full kitchen in there, redo a space to make a bedroom and then sister-in-law and her then husband entered the house primarily from the door (which was an actual door), there was a path built from the driveway to the backyard.

The neighbors were just as surprised as I was about the back door. The back door went into the utility room/laundry room. The flippers that bought the house cut the utility room into thirds.....one third added onto the master bath.....one third as a walk in closet for the master bedroom, one third for the washer and dryer. The back door could have remained as it was in the third that became a tiny laundry room.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The neighbors were just as surprised as I was about the back door. The back door went into the utility room/laundry room. The flippers that bought the house cut the utility room into thirds.....one third added onto the master bath.....one third as a walk in closet for the master bedroom, one third for the washer and dryer. The back door could have remained as it was in the third that became a tiny laundry room.

Well yeah it could have remained, but like I said even if it had it's unlikely it would have been used. It makes even more sense to me to remove it if that room was the laundry room. I'd rather have the wall space in a laundry room than a door to the back especially with 2 other ways to get outside in the back.

Priorities and usages of homes shift and change. Flippers are also usually keen enough to figure out what is working for buyers in a given market.

 

[tvguy]

Well yeah it could have remained, but like I said even if it had it's unlikely it would have been used. It makes even more sense to me to remove it if that room was the laundry room. I'd rather have the wall space in a laundry room than a door to the back especially with 2 other ways to get outside in the back.

Priorities and usages of homes shift and change. Flippers are also usually keen enough to figure out what is working for buyers in a given market.

Yes, usage does vary. The back door was probably the most frequently used door in my parents house. But they had a big back yard that my mom loved. And all the years she had a dog, it got used every few hours to let the dog out.

 

[fla4fun]

90% garage/laundry room door, 10% front door. I only use the front door if I am going out to do trimming in the yard [don’t want the garage open when I am unable to see it), picking up package deliveries, or the rare occasion that I start to go somewhere in the car, have closed the garage door, and realize I forgot something I need (easier to just pop back in the front door). The rest of the time I am usually in the car, moving it in or out of the garage, so using the garage/laundry room door makes sense.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Front door. No door from garage and our back door is a slider. Also have an outside entrance to the basement that we rarely use.