Is your's a 'back door' home?

[alchemysa]

I'm building a new home for the wife and, well I guess me too. The back door has two sets of steps built already so you can come in from the front or the back. The front door has a porch, but no steps. You can come in there if you'd like, but you'll need to climb up a bit, and we'll be sure you don't know us.

The location of driveways and fences has a lot to do with it of course. Suburban blocks with fences both sides don't lend themselves to 'friendly entrances'. Our kids live in those. We have to knock on the door to get in. The front door opens straight into a formal area. I don't like it at all. They even have to use the front door themselves to get in and out! But security has to be considered I guess. (Although our answer to that is simply to have a dog and not own anything worth stealing).

Our own block is large enough to have two driveways. The one we all use comes in from the side and ends a short walk from the back door. But I'm sure architects designing even small houses on small blocks could incorporate more friendly aspects like that.

 

[sodamo]

Interesting topic

When the wife and I were designing this house, a number of people asked about the front, as in where is the front of the house, the front door? As I'd point to it, I'd have a somewhat blank expression and wonder why? The drive comes from the rear of the property and doesn't go to the front. To us, it was just natural that people would come in through the back door(s) into the kitchen area and most people do. There have been several who walk to the front instead - kinda strange, especially since front or rear, the doors (3 sets of french and 3 sliders) all come into one large, open, living, dining, kitchen combined.

 

[tugboat-2]

. . . well I suppose changes in the design of your "home" follow changes in our particular "lifestyles". One big change is no need for a large kitchen with huge harvest tables which follows the advent of modern machinery such as the combine which cuts down the need for many men on site, hence smaller kitchens.

. . . computers and computerized equipment decrease the number of people and the size of the workplace. Sending materials and work (labour) off-shore has taken a great toll on many aspects of the workforce.

. . . compact work/life-styles have lead to more compact living quarters, the big houses have been reduced to smaller semi-detached and apartments and condos etc. I do believe that UNfriendly high-risers and condos where you don't really get to know your neighbour,...(partly due to no longer sharing a beer on a hot day over the back fence during yard maintenance etc) is a contributing factor and those non-conversational elevator rides up to your floor don't encourage much.

. . . especially in the city where everyone is rushing, rushing, hurrying from place to place, no time for a quiet chat,...even some areas of country life is taking on a more hurried and harried pace. Once home the rush seems to be to unlock the door, jump inside, lock and bolt the door and get parked in front of the TV or computer. (No need for that old front porch and swing huh?)

. . . soon, we'll have no need for a comfortable "home",... just a cubicle with a small fridge, a mattress, a microwave and table for the TV and PC,...sad eh?

. . . Boy oh boy !! ... it's a shame to see life getting so speeded up, you don't have time to chat with a neighbour, . . but for me personally,.. I just love the manner in which we live in our rural, small town farming community, where folk still come over, knock lightly and are welcome to come on in and have a seat (albeit a hard wooden kitchen chair), and take the time to chat and discuss the simple small-talk things that many folk just don't have the time to waste on anymore. I'll take "this" old-time country life anytime thank you.

CHEERS, . . and slow down and enjoy your short time on this earth!!

. . tug

 

[2458n]

Great subject. One never gives this much thought. The first time the UPS man delivered a package to my place it did not get "found" for days as it was set by the front door.

 

[Gizmo2]

Ya know we are all probably a bunch of so called Rednecks..........Wouldn't have it any other way.:thumbsup: Great bunch of people on this forum.

 

[RTII]

Great subject. One never gives this much thought. The first time the UPS man delivered a package to my place it did not get "found" for days as it was set by the front door.

Had to laugh. This happens to us regularly. Especially if we're not expecting the package.

 

[JDgreen227]

Had to laugh. This happens to us regularly. Especially if we're not expecting the package.

We have a hard time describing which door to use when we expect visitors...our original house was a 1 1/2 story, the driveway runs right by a fieldstone porch with a door that opens into the living room, (on south side) and the house had a back door to the east that opened into the basement with a short set of steps that led to the kitchen, and facing the road (west) was an entry door that led into a small hallway then into the same living room.
When we build on an addition, we added another south facing door into the laundry room that we use for the "front door" and we also have a pair of sliding glass doors on the east end that replaced the original east door...we usually find packages at either of the south side doors but once or twice the delivery man has left them on the west door (which is never used). I keep telling myself I am going to take that one off but never got around to it.

 

[Runner]

My parent's house (that I grew up in) was a back door house all the way. The back door was the "central hub" of activity, opened into the kitchen and was ten feet from the detached garage/worshop and the driveway. The "front" door led to a nice covered porch that was only used for sitting and watching passers by.

So far, the two homes I've owned have both had basement side entry garages and we almost always enter and leave through the garage. Unfortuantely, neither of them have had man doors in the garage, so the garage doors get a workout. That has always bugged me, but I can't fix it because there isn't room beside or between the garage doors to install a man door.

 

[looknlearn]

. . . Boy oh boy !! ... it's a shame to see life getting so speeded up, you don't have time to chat with a neighbour, . . but for me personally,.. I just love the manner in which we live in our rural, small town farming community, where folk still come over, knock lightly and are welcome to come on in and have a seat (albeit a hard wooden kitchen chair), and take the time to chat and discuss the simple small-talk things that many folk just don't have the time to waste on anymore. I'll take "this" old-time country life anytime thank you.

CHEERS, . . and slow down and enjoy your short time on this earth!!

. . tug

Amen to that. I really enjoy places where life is just slower. I got cousins in a horse and buggy community in Tenn. where everything is slower. Enjoy that quite a bit. Hard work but good company. Hoping to take a bicycle ride down there for a while this summer.

 

[tglass]

back or side door..someone I know. front door..someone who has never been here.