Are you doing stone on the entire foundation? If not, then I would leave it off the columns.

Trying to decide that this week- we are just breaking ground today. We were either going to do stone on the entire foundation or do stone on the steps and porch and then do dry stack stone on all the pillars around the house with stucco in between- there will be a stone fireplace on the back porch also. We love stone and if it were up to my husband the whole house would be stone, but I kind of like the stone and stucco mix so that where there is stone you notice it, does that make sense at all? Thoughts?

Krosswood Doors. I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but we did 8 ft Knotty alder doors and finished them ourselves. Krosswood doors can be purchased at home depot and at Uberdoors.com We purchased them from Uberdoors although we had some issues, they made everything right in the end.

Thank you Carolyn, yes that is the idea, how was finishing them yourselves? I would have 4 of them to do.

For the interior doors- we want them stained, any recommendations for where to buy stain grade 8foot interior doors?

I've heard that local lumberyards are the best places to buy doors. :-)

"I've heard that local lumberyards are the best places to buy doors. :-)"

Emphasis on "local" and not a box store.....................

We had over 20 interior doors plus our front door and fire door to the garage. It was a lot of work, but they turned out great. We didn't stain them just did a poly finish because we like the natural color of knotty alder which darkens over time. Our home is in the mountains so it works well with the rustic feel. If you only have four that should be a breeze. If you order from Uber doors they can finish them for you but shipping is expensive. If you only have four it would probably be cheaper to order from Home Depot and have them delivered for free to the store and then stain them yourself. I will say that my husband is very handy so he knew what he was doing. If you go this direction, you will need a mixture of epoxy and black coloring (can't remember the actual product) to fill any large knots. You can google it to see the right technique. Let me know if you decide to go this way and I can get you the specific products we used.

Thank you so much Carolyn. You have been really helpful and have given me some great options. I really appreciate it and will let you know if I need the product names.

Here was our finishing operation.

I am really impressed that you did all of those yourselves- they look great.

Exterior door help-

please see photo above of house plan. Trying to decide between wood or fiberglass. It will be stained. The house is in north Georgia. The front will be covered by a porch and faces north into the woods. Please advise!

Is there consideration for the amount of natural light you have in the entry-way ? In other words, will a window-less door in a window-less entry way provide a bat-cave or will the room be warm and inviting?

Here is the layout- the entry way could be a little dark, but it opens into a large great room with lots of natural light. We are replacing the back door and Windows with a 16 foot sliding French door system, so basically the whole back wall will be glass. We are open to ideas and suggestions!

Britta - I gel stained a fiberglass door and it looks awful.. not sure what I was thinking. I would only get fiberglass again if I were planning on painting.

Find a local custom door maker and work with him/her.

i would go with new or local custom. we are building and i ran across a lot of old doors, very cool, but practical.. NO. they are usually out of square, the door bottom usually has damage requiring filler that can't be stained, new is easier/faster/cheaper. finishing is not hard, prep work is a must- sanding mainly. practice on a piece of similar wood to get the feel of it. are you sure no glass? if that door is the main entry, and dark will equal gloomy, a transom window would work.

Britta. You can get a nice knotty alder heavy door from local supplier and customize the finish and hardware. Hardware will set the style tone. You can get it distressed if you want a more rustic look. These are great doors and made with properly kiln dried woods. I did one on a custom home that was in a wooded area and it turned out really beautiful and it was a good bit less cost than totally custom door. We put speakeasy window in the door with iron exterior detail. We put transom above. If interested i think i have photo.

Thank you all for the advice. I am going to a local door shop tomorrow. He sells both wood and fiberglass. I think I am leaning toward wood, I will definitely look at adding a transom. We bought an antique heart pine door that needs to be stripped that I wanted to use for the front, our builder said pretty much exactly what you said Kay kin. I am going to strip it and see how it looks and hopefully use it as a barn door in the kitchen where it goes to the utility room- it is the right size to fit in the space as a hinged door, but I don't know how much work it would take to build the frame.

Thank you Flo- if it is not too much trouble I would love to see a picture. It sounds like something that we would love.

Britta I definitely think you should do stained wood not painted fiberglass. Reclaimed would be amazing but no one wants to do that kind of work it seems. It takes a labor of love. I did reclaimed doors on barn door hardware to hide my TV alcove, and I am glad I did BUT the hardware is expensive, clunky, and....doesn’t work!!!! Consider that they are a trend on the way out (Less so for a rustic lake house) And look for sleeker, hidden, functioning hardware, or better yet hinges!

i said this on your other thread but I feel strongly that a stone foundation all the way around (NOT up to the windows but up to the first floor just like a real stone foundation) would look great, with or without a stone porch. Don’t put stacked stone for pillars on a wood porch, the columns should be all wood or wood sitting on a stone base on a stone porch if that makes sense?

Your front elevation shows a front door with glass and sidelites and looks very nice. I think the foyer will look like a dark tunnel when inside looking towards the door without glass and sidelites.

Britta. I don’t have great photo of that door unfortunately but here are a couple while still working on it. We were using dark stains in this home. We put hammered metal detailing called “clavos” for look of Spanish doors. These were double entry doors. Really beautiful when finished. Door handle is temp. Heavy black hammered door handles were installed just prior to move in. I put that one with the entry chandelier to show you curved top of door. Hope this helps.

I think the foyer will look like a dark tunnel when inside looking towards the door without glass and sidelites.

How is this being addressed?

Carolyn T do you mind letting me know if your doors have darkened over time? We have the krosswood knotty alder doors ready to finish and can’t dcide if we want them a little darker or if we should just put a clear finish. Our front door was factory stained in russet, I’d love to try to come close to it, but having a hard time matching the stain.

Anyone have suggestions to get close to this color on knotty alder interior doors?

You will need to do test samples on knotty alder boards. Also, you need to take into account your floor color. Can you post photos of flooring?

Britta - we have only been here since July so it hasn't really been very long. I don't expect that they will darken as much as you are showing above. We did not use any stain.

We ordered our doors from Uberdoors.com and you can order a sample kit from them which might help you narrow down the stain that would work for you. Otherwise, I agree with Flo above on doing test samples on knotty alder wood.

The floors have not been stained yet they are white oak. We are thinking English Chestnut- I will get a picture of our sample board for the floors today and post it. Thank you both for your help.

We have red oak floors with a special walnut stain so the floors are darker than the doors.

Go to a local good lumber yard and buy a piece of knotty alder. Then when the guys who will be staining your floors cone to do sone samples get your knotty alder over there and have them put same stain on your KA. The two different woods, white oak and KA will take the stain slightly differently but you will have a good idea if they would work nicely together. You want them to be happy together!

For solid wood doors(2" thick) we used ball bearing hinges. Two for interior doors and three for the entrance. Deltana.

Carolyn T I'm considering ordering from Uber Doors. Another company, Rustica, has terrible reviews. You mentioned you had some issues, but it worked out. Can you say more about that and also how your doors have held up? Thank you.

The doors are great - they are Krosswood Knotty Alder doors and we are very happy with them. The shipping process with Uber Doors was the problem. Hopefully they have fixed their problems, but for us the doors were shipped with very little packaging and therefore we had multiple doors that were damaged. We also had the wrong color hardware sent. We were doing an entire house and Uber Doors gave us the best price with a discount off of their website prices. Each time we had an issue, we called and sent pictures and they either sent us a new door/hardware or gave us credit. If you are just doing interior doors and just a couple, Home Depot carries the Krosswood doors, but would not give us any discount on a bulk order. I would probably order from Uber again because of the discount but it was frustrating to have so many issues because it seemed to me they were avoidable if they had any quality control process in putting the shipping package together.

I wanted to share my experience with Krosswood since I looked at this post before deciding to go with them. I got the one with 6 panes on top. There are dirt smudges on the insides of the double paned glass! Also, it was not wrapped or packaged at all when I picked up from Home Depot. I don't know if that was Krosswood or Home Depot, but I'm very disappointed in this purchase. Other than the glass, the door looks nice, but the permanent smudges are going to drive me mad! I would not recommend this brand door or Home Depot for purchasing something like this.

There are dirt smudges on the insides of the double paned glass!

:-O

Oh, dang. That would drive me bonkers. :-/

Yeah, tell me about it. I'm so shocked by the realization that we spent so many hours fitting the door before seeing the smudges (I figured cleaning the glass is the last thing you do) that I don't even know what I want as a remedy. I'm trying to maintain perspective given covid-19, but this is just one more thing that is stressful right now :P

Lynn Wu, the glass should be replaceable, right? What if it got broken by kids playing with a ball? Call a local glass company and ask how much it would cost to replace the glass. Then ask Home Depot for a credit in that amount.

I don't know about doors but before you get further, I'd consider posting your kitchen in the kitchen forum.

The problem is your sink doesn't allow you any room for prepping. Normally we take food out of the fridge and pantry, bring it to the sink to wash, then prep next to the sink and then bring the food to the cooktop to cook. And we try and do that without crossing zones.

Honestly I think you'd be better off with an L shaped perimeter and the island

chispa Yes, it just totally sucks to have to deal with this at all, but you're right. I should do that ... if any glass companies are still open these days. The Bay Area is in a shelter in place order for the next 3 weeks!

cpartist I'm guessing you're "talking" to someone else, but if you're refering to me, I don't know what you're talking about.

@Carolyn T

Did your sidelights come from Uber with that privacy glass or did you have to do that yourself?

They came from Uber. Was part of the Krosswood Door.

Not liking those Uber doors. Maybe a spam OP.

- Client is responsible for measuring, finishing, install.

- Where are they made? The website is conspicuously silent on this. Usually proud made-in-USA shops are front and center with this.

Hi Carolyn or Britta, Am looking at ordering Krosswood wood doors via home depot. In my case it is just 1 front door. Our house here in bay area is east facing and so the door will get sun in the morning all the way till noon. Krosswood rep said that as long as the house is not facing south or south west my warranty is not voided and so their stance was it should be good for me. But am worried that it may need frequent sanding and staining. You have had the door for 6 or more years now. how is the door and how often do you sand/stain the front door. thanks