Who knew there were so many decisions to make about glass? I think my face must have been a picture when Steve asked me what sort of frosted glass we wanted for the downstairs toilet and en-suite. What sort of frosted glass? Is there more than one sort?? Apparently, yes, there is. He suggested oak leaf or autumn as possible options. Consider my mind blown. I was relieved to discover that it is possible to just have a basic non-patterned frosted effect as I had imagined some forest-based tableaux complete with woodland nymphs or fauns from Narnia. It was also a happy moment to discover that Neil has similar views on this to me.
We had already decided to match our existing windows rather than view the windows as another possible money pit and so are having uPVC Georgian style windows as per the existing windows. This just leaves the front door and large expanse of glass at the back of the house to consider. Having previously thought that we wanted a wooden front door (oak, perhaps?), we have been sold on the benefits of the composite doors available. Less maintenance sounds like a winner and they definitely look a lot better than our old white plastic horror. With only a couple of days to make all decisions about the doors and windows, I managed to fit in a trip to Camberley to the showroom of the builders’ preferred window man. I had a look at a number of doors and they, very helpfully, had a door similar to the design we had selected on display. Although Neil hadn’t seen any of this, I sent him a silly number of photos of my trip to the window shop (leading him to clarify that he does trust me to make decisions about things like door knockers. Clearly I had already made that decision, but it’s nice to keep him in the loop!). We then stopped at a friend’s house this weekend to return the tent that we had borrowed from them, and were able to study their new composite door… That’s how rock and roll we are now.
We have also decided to buck the bi-fold trend and go with sliding doors at the back of the house. This is for a few reasons but mainly because this is the best way of having as little metal in the way of the view from the family room. We figure that there will be relatively small amounts of time when we want to have the whole back of the house open, compared with a large amount of time when we will enjoy seeing the outside from the warmth of our house. I also got into a total muddle trying to shut a bi-fold door at the showroom so think that sliding ones are more suited to anyone likely to get into a flap with mechanical things. And plus, who doesn’t love the film Sliding Doors? (OK, that’s not a real reason. But it is a great 90’s film.)
