New Front Door

Since Sam and I had been dating, he had always talked about getting a new front door on the house. He originally was going to buy one from a friend, then once we got married, we get serious about it.

We knew we wanted glass in it, possible storm door, wood color, and pretty. Anything was better than the 1950's door we had though.

We quickly axed the storm door idea because our front door has to swing to the right due to the fact that when you walk in it, you will walk straight into the chimney wall. So the storm door would swing left to lay against the house. And that would be ridiculous. I could see myself being lat for work and getting stuck between the two doors...

I had a door with cut glass in the home I grew up in and LOVED it. Sam thought they were pretty, but not private. We kept looking (and I kept praying we would find one we both liked) and we settled on 3/4 glass with craftsman class.

We went to Lowe's to order it, they sent a guy to measure our door, and he told us we were going to have to replace all of the fluted trim that is around the door and that our opening was a weird size AND That it was going to cost us A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY TO GET SAID DOOR and we didn't love the color. Um, no thanks.

We were referred to a wonderful, Christian-owned company, called Aluma in Chattanooga. We went and picked out a fiberglass door, with the SAME glass, with woodgrain, for 1/4 of what Lowe's was going to charge.

We waited three weeks, picked up the door and got help drilling the holes for the handle and deadbolt that we got at Lowe's with some of our wedding gift cards (thank you!!).

We then bought a gel stain and polyurethane top coat to stain the fiberglass door with wood grain "pattern". It seriously looks just like a real wood door but is more energy efficient. It took two coats of stain to get it the deep brown color we liked, and two coats of gloss, just like a wood door. This took patience and I couldn't wait to get that thing hung!

Then Sam had a friend come help him hang it. And I came home from work to find this beautiful "after"!!!




We LOVE it. The door itself, the hardware is gorgeous and the glass is, too. The only completely clear parts of the glass are the three little squares that are high up. The other parts of the door are "blurry" and you can't hardly make out shapes in them unless it's really dark outside and super bright inside -- but you can't see details. It's perfect.

Next up on the front porch? Bright cushions for those cute rocking chairs you see in the reflection of the new door.

Hallway Wedding Gallery

We got a lot of great wedding gifts (thank you!) and one that I couldn't wait to use was a wall art framing kit from Bed, Bath and Beyond, and a personalized frame with out wedding date on it. We knew we wanted a "gallery" of photos form the wedding in the hallway, so as soon as we got the hi-res copies of the pictures we put them in the frames.

Because we actually laid out the gallery in the floor and hung it about a month ago. :)

> The gallery frame set was from my coworker and work momma, Tina

> The personalized frame in the middle was from George and Patti Cromie (my adopted grandparents) and has a shot from the church balcony after Dad and I reached the alter

> The top photo that spells GUIN was a gift to Sam from his sis, Sarah, way before I came along -- but it fit in perfectly with this! (thanks Sarah!)

> The faith, love and family iron words were from my house and are special to me.

> The architectural elements on each side of the Guin are from Hobby Lobby and cost $3 each -- we needed something to fill up the space with the words. It looked empty and now it doesn't!

> The pictures are some of our favorites:

Top row, L to R - Sam and I right after we walked up the aisle, Sam and I on the firetruck, church shot, Sam and I leaving in the Super Bird, Sam and I acting goofy during pictures

Left of family is me by the stained glass, and right of family is Sam by the stained glass "looking over" to me :)

And the bottom is our WHOLE family and one of my absolute favorite pictures. My parents, grandparents and Sam's parents, grandmothers, brother, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew.

What I really love about this wall is that you see it as soon as you walk in our front door.