I can make the simplest task complicated. Just ask Mom and Dad.
The house needs screen doors on all three exterior doorways, for the typical obvious reasons: to let in more light, for better air circulation, and to protect the main doors.
Sounds simple. Go to Home Depot and pick up some doors. I don't think so.
Carter's brother Kerras, who built the bathroom vanity and supplied reclaimed hardwood and hardware, and many doors including the Gothic Revival exterior door at the back, also makes custom screen doors.
This door is Gothic Revival because of the chamfered, or angled edges of the panels, and the grain is painted on. Also the proportion and size, and distribution of panels with the bottom two being very short denotes its age. My best guess is that this door dates from the 1860s or maybe a little later. By the way, it was wearing fast, so after I left last year Dad gave it a light sanding and put a sealer on it to slow down the weathering of the faux grain finish.
Anyway, back to Kerras. This is his website, updated since I last saw it. Very nice!
He makes custom gingerbread trim and screen doors, and does fantastic work, so he is the natural choice to make my doors. Incidentally, he makes them all with removable glass panels so they double as storm doors in the winter.
The patterns for screen doors that Kerras uses were designed by Carter, based on traditional PEI screen doors.
I talked to Kerras last year about the doors and he said the next time I visit he and I can custom design the doors. All three doors are different sizes and of different character, so I want all three doors to be different from each other. The screen door at the back should have some Gothic details to compliment that door, probably with four panels, the bottom two being very short.
The front door had a screen door on it until we gutted the place. I had repaired it in the late 90s but by 2010 it fell apart again, so it went in the dumpster. We saved the bell on it though and Dad reinstalled it in the main door.
1999
2010
I think I want something formal here with solid panels at the bottom, similar to the original. For the kitchen, it had a simple square framed door that got a lot of use. I remember the old dark green one that used to be there, and it fell apart one year, so Jim Burtt built a new one that lasted a long time. It fell apart though as well after many years of heavy use.
old green door in 1988
Jim's replacement as it looked 1994
From this early photo you can see the first screen door on the kitchen, before there was a kitchen porch, and it had 5 panels. I might opt for something like this on the porch.
They will all be painted Farrow and Ball Carriage Green, to match the colour of the exterior doors and window sashes. They will have traditional hardware, with a coil that will make them squeak and slam like the old kitchen screen door used to.
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