Thank you very much for your thoughts on this! We do not plan to use storm doors.

Update: I was wrong about our house windows. They are not TDL but FDL (full divided light), which for Andersen windows means interior and exterior permanent grilles, with an aluminum spacer bar between the glass. This seems to be the same thing as Simpson SDL. Any reason not to buy 3/4 light wood doors from Simpson that are SDL? The only other thing I've learned is that with a Simpson SDL door, if glass breaks, it may be cost-prohibitive to replace the glass, and necessary to replace the whole door. With TDL, an individual broken light can be replaced. Any thoughts on which doors will look better, and what makes the most sense? Attached are photos that show what the TDL and SDL lights look like in the Simpson doors. The light with the dark framing is the TDL and the one with the aluminum piece between the glass is the SDL.

Are you sure you want 30" double doors? You end up with 2 narrow doors.

Thank you. Yes, we need to go with 30" double doors. We are replacing the original front entry doors that are the same size. Significant renovation would be needed to change. The space doesn't work well for a single door with sidelights, for instance, which was our first choice, and we can't go wider than 60" because there's a coat closet inside on either side of the entry doors. We also can't easily go taller. We have two sets of French doors on the back of the house, each the same size as the proposed front entry doors. We are comfortable that the size of the entry doors will be nice.

SDL will be fine instead of the TDL.

Thanks very much for your thoughts.

I would need to see the house and all the other windows.

Thank you for being willing to share your thoughts. Attached are a few photos of the house, and one of the door style we're pursuing. The brown doors example may have bevelled glass, but we are not seeking bevelled glass -- I just included the photo as a sample of door type.

Hi, I'm wrestling with the same question now and am curious where you landed on this question and if you're happy with your decision. I lean towards SDL for energy efficiency, but it's an old house and I don't want it to look fake. Did you go with the SDL option?

Happy to share! We ultimately purchased Therma Tru Smooth Star doors with SDL and we’re very happy with them. I painted them Farrow and Ball Stiffkey Blue on the outside and installed an Emtek Jefferson handset. We’re working on the casing at the moment and changing the lights, and I don’t have a photo showing everything done, but the photo below at least shows the doors. Perhaps I’ll post another photo when finished if I can remember to do that. I certainly am very thankful for the help I’ve received through this site! Good luck!

The doors: