Were you thinking about something metal or wood?

Aluminum Fencing · More Info

I was thinking wood and probably white. I would also do vinyl if I can find something.

I do like that picture of the gate with the vertical slats.

The house is going to (probably) be blue, with white trim.

What is the style of the house, and the fencing surrounding the pool?

This project is a total re-do of just about everything. Here's the house right now:

The chain-link fence is gone, we're painting the brick (again, probably blue with white trim), new windows, doors, etc. Adding a pergola structure in the front, new metal roof, redoing driveway, and adding a large detached 2 car garage in back.

This is the garage and you can see the 8' privacy fence around the yard.

The pool is going pretty much where all the lumber is piled.

I would want a door, that would lock.

Will there be an entrance from your living area to the pool? If so, will this just be a utility door for the pool and yard guys? If so, I would do a locked metal door with a code you can give to workers.

Is it possible to put a door from the pool area to the bathroom as a convenience for your guests? Also, I think the door from the carport to the backyard should lock. A metal frame with wood slats might work perfectly there.

What a great project! Since the door accesses the pool area, it will need to be secured in a way that is compliant with your local code. It also looks a bit narrow for a regular door.

To answer some of the questions:

This is THE entrance into our backyard/pool area - other than through the gate across the new driveway leading to the garage. We thought about adding an exit door from our mudroom or our kitchen directly into the backyard, but decided against it. Considering how much money we’re currently spending, it just wasn’t worth it to us. At 63 years old, I know what’s important and what’s not. I’m good with exiting our house into the carport and then going through this entryway to access the backyard/pool.

Part of me likes the idea of an actual door, but part of me thinks something more “fence like” would be more aesthetically pleasing.

No thought of adding another or new entrance to the carport laundry room/bathroom directly from the backyard. That would involve too much moving of plumbing in there. Granted, it would be convenient, but not important to us. If someone is hanging in our backyard, enjoying the pool, and they need a bathroom, they’ll have to walk the extra steps to get to the bathroom through the carport.

The garage we’ve had built has 2 additional rooms as part of the space. One will be a pool room/man cave, and the other will be a sleeping space - with an actual bed for extra guests if need be. But I’m NOT calling it a bedroom because the space itself has no bathroom. Again, there will be the bathroom just a short walk away in the carport - through this door/gate we’re talking about. We are also adding an outdoor shower on the back of the carport.

When this project is done the house will have 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths inside it, plus the carport ½ bath, and the garage sleeping space. Plenty of room for our 2 kids and their families to visit. Vacation at the grandparents!

I can’t be sure, but I think there was a door there at one point in time. At least that’s how it looks up top. It’s almost 36” wide and 80” tall, which I think is very close to a standard door. But I’m definitely not married to an actual “door” being there - some type of gate might be better. As long as it is able to somehow lock I guess.

Maybe I can have our fence guy or one of the carpenters build something, but I'm having a difficult time visualizing…

I think it’s a great idea to have a bathroom easily accessible from the pool area, instead of having wet people walk through the house.🙂. A see through wood gate that latches/locks from both sides would be nice - can the carpenter build one?

First on the list is what is the code for pool access where you live . We have to have a fence all around the pool with a gate that can be locked and withut that the pool cannot even have insurance . I am trying to undestand why there is not access to the pool from the house without going though the garage . Do you not have windows facing the pool that could have been changed to aptio doors , this just seems very odd to me. As for a gate or a door I guess a gate since a door would really be weird . Is there a way to change the access to the laundry area from inside the pool area instead of the door in the garage?

@Patricia Colwell Consulting - I don't think you've read the entire thread. I explained the set-up in pretty good detail and you're not understanding it. I think you're confusing our current carport with our new detached garage.

You do not have to go through the new detached garage to access the pool. You simply walk out the backdoor from the mudroom of our house into the carport, go through the opening right there (where I'm putting the gate/door) and you're standing on our patio, next to the pool.

I said before - we're totally fine with the exits from our house and how we access the pool. Sorry if it seems odd to you. I also explained that we're fine with how we access the laundry/powder room.

And of course we're well aware of local codes and we will follow all of them.

Just a note: This is why I sometimes hesitate to ask a simple question here. Some people seem to stray so far off course with giving opinions and "helpful" information that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

Sorry if I sound crabby, but I never understand why people want to give advice that's not asked for - especially after I've already explained why we made the decisions that we made and that we're not changing them.

I think a gate that locks would work to keep things safe and secure. I found a webpage that has different styles of metal framed wooden gates.

https://www.hotelsrate.org/metal-framed-wooden-side-gates/

I hope the link will help.

Thanks again for the comments. I'm not sure of the nuts and bolts of the process as far as building and installing it, but I'm thinking something like these gates would look good and serve the correct purpose.

It actually sounds safer for small children if you can’t access the pool directly from the house. Plus, in some climates, the pool is covered for many months and a bit of an eyesore imho. That would be cute!

I can't control myself with this. Here is the Dutch door, in progress:

From the carport -

From the backyard -

Open -

I love a Dutch door! Had one at my grandparent's cottage when I was a kid. It reminds me of Mr. Ed too.

Why the big gap between the top and bottom halves?

The door's not done yet. There will be a shelf between the 2 halves where the gap is.

Our builders "door guy" is making it for us from an old custom Cypress door that they had in storage and saving us quite a bit of money! It's going to look very different when completed but I was so excited when I saw it today I had to post a picture while "in progress!"

Excellent.

Great solution! I hope you can keep the cypress that natural color. I do love the color of wood!

Funny story on the finish of the door:

My original plan was to paint the door, to make it fun and to make it pop in my backyard. I had a vision...

From the beginning the guy who was actually building it for us tried very hard to dissuade me from that. He really (REALLY) wanted me to keep it natural with just a clear coat so that we'd be able to see the beauty and age of this very beat-up old door. He didn't think it needed to pop as much as just make a statement.

It took him a few days, but I was eventually convinced that he was correct - no paint on the Dutch door.

Turns out our contractor (who gave me the door from another old New Orleans house he'd owned) had been cringing every time I said I wanted to paint it - he hated the idea. But he felt that he'd offered me the door, so now it was my door, and I could finish it the way I wanted. To say he was relieved when we decided on a clear coat finish is a definite understatement.

They did add a shelf between the 2 halves so the painters put quite a bit of effort into finding a color to stain the shelf so that it matched the natural color of the door itself. They did an awesome job.

My door is undoubtedly going to end up being one of my most favorite parts of this gigantic project. And I really love seeing how proud the guy who is building it is of his handiwork!

Pic?🙂

It was up for awhile, but recently removed to be finished. It's looking a little sad in 2 pieces in our garage...

I miss it terribly, which is hysterical considering it was only hanging for a few days.

I will absolutely post pictures.

NOTE: The same worker on our job also made swinging saloon doors for our newly built outdoor shower using the original front door from the house. I never liked the door on the house (not my style) but I adore what he did with it.

Ultimately I'm going to do a serious Before & After thread on this entire project...we're pretty mind-boggled on what we've accomplished!

I've already posted a ridiculously long Before/After post with a ton of pictures, but I did want to update this thread. Here is the Dutch Door made for us for between our carport and our backyard.

It. Is. Perfect.

From our carport -

From our carport looking into our backyard -

From the backyard looking into the carport

Can you include in these comments a link to your ridiculously long before and after post? If the rest of your house is half as nice as this door, it must be beautiful.

@Kendrah - you are very kind.

Here's the link to my ridiculously long before and after post. That is now its official title in my head! LOL

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6445624/our-1963-red-brick-ranch-before-after

Wonderful!!