My Bedroom Door Decision And Plans (I’m Meeting With A Contractor Today!)
Okay, y’all, after wrestling with this decision over whether or not I should have a door put in our new bedroom, I’ve decided that I’m going to move forward with the plan. But after reading all of your comments about the idea, I’ve changed that plan a bit.
I don’t know why, but I had it in my mind that it needed to be French doors on the front wall of the bedroom.
But of course, that leads to a whole lot of other issues. With those wide doors (which would be no less than five feet wide, if not wider), then I’d need an even wider landing. And with a wider landing, then I have to deal with either working around our gas meter and sewer line cleanout or having both of those moved.
It all seemed a bit overwhelming. And expensive. But then a few of you mentioned that I don’t really need French doors, especially because it’s on the front of the house. All I need is a single door. After all, the only purpose of the door is to get Matt out quickly and safely in the event of an emergency.
Initially, I didn’t love the idea. That’s probably because I had been so set on French doors that I couldn’t get my mind to “see” any other possibility. In fact, when I called the contractor to set up today’s meeting, I was still thinking that I would have him give me a price for French doors.
Another issue I’ve had is that I do not want a wheelchair ramp in the front of our house. I can’t think of a way to incorporate it in a way that will look nice. I will absolutely bend over backwards to make Matt’s life as easy as possible. I’ve jumped through hoops to make sure doorways are big enough, there are no raised thresholds that he has to deal with, there are no annoying area rugs in main passthroughs, and on and on. We had a huge concrete wheelchair ramp added out the back doors of my studio leading to the carport. And when we build our addition, I will make sure that there’s an easy way for him to get from inside the house onto the deck or patio or whatever we have back there. I strive to make his life easy in every way possible. But a wheelchair ramp in the front of our house is a line in the sand for me.
But when my friend was here last week, and we were standing in that room and talking about the possibilities, she had a great idea. She said that her husband uses portable ramps (like lightweight portable aluminum ramps) for all kinds of needs, like getting a four-wheeler into the back of a truck, or transporting heavy equipment that needs to be put onto a trailer. So she suggested that since the door will really only be used by Matt in the case of an emergency, that I should just put steps from the door to the ground and then stash a rust-proof aluminum ramp on the side of the house that can be accessed quickly and easily in an emergency. I love that idea!! It could literally just lean against the side of the house and be hidden by landscaping. It’s the perfect solution.
So after having a little over a week to think about the idea of a single door and then talking with my friend about this idea of steps with an easily accessible portable ramp, I’ve come around to the idea of having a single door installed there. I was going to try to do a mockup of the idea, complete with steps, landscaping, etc., but instead, I decided to let ChatGPT do it for me. And while it’s not perfect, it actually produced a pretty good picture on the very first try!
This is the photo I uploaded to ChatGPT…
And this is the prompt that I gave it:
Create image: Keep the shape of the building exactly as it is in this photo. Keep the stone facade, roofline, and angles of the building exactly the same. Remove the window and shutter. Add a single exterior 15-lite door where the window currently is. Make the bottom of the door about one foot off of the ground. Then add concrete steps from the bottom of the door to the ground. Make the steps about one foot wider than the door on each side, and make the steps no taller than 4 inches each. This will require at least three steps to get from the ground to the threshold of the door. Then add pretty landscaping at ground level on each side of the concrete steps, including evergreens and colorful annuals. On the concrete steps, add a navy blue container planter on each side of the door with greenery and colorful flowers.
And this is what it gave me…
It even kept the gas meter! 😀 Y’all, I can totally work with that! It’s not exactly right. I can’t have that huge step up from the landing into the doorway, obviously. And I’d like to add some height to the plants, especially that plant in the corner where the bedroom wall meets the part of the walk-in closet wall that juts out from the front of the house. But I can totally work with this! I’m actually very excited about this! And I do think that it looks so much better from the outside than French doors would have looked since it’s the front of our house.
I also like that the steps just go down to grass. I don’t want to tie in this doorway with the front sidewalk that leads to our front door because that will just confuse people. I know that probably all of us would look at that and say that even with a walkway to this door tied into our main sidewalk, common sense would prevail, and people would know which door is our front door. But I can guarantee you that there are those people out there who would be confused. Common sense simply doesn’t prevail in every person. 😀 Now if I can just find a grass that will grow under the canopy of our huge oak tree, this plan will work out.
UPDATE: I also had ChatGPT do a mockup of the interior. This is the photo I uploaded…
I learned the hard way that you have to be very explicit in the instructions that you give ChaptGPT. As long as you spell out every detail, it does a pretty good job! So this is the prompt I gave it:
Create image: Keep the angle and proportions of the view of this room exactly the same as it appears in this photo. Keep the hardwood floor exactly the same. Keep the window on the right the exact same, including the woven window shade and the white trim around the window. Remove the window on the left. In the place of that window, add an exterior 15-lite door with white trim. Remove the colorful strips from the walls. On the walls, add white wainscoting to the bottom portion of the walls from the floor up to 32″ on the walls. Above the wainscoting, add dark teal grasscloth wallpaper the rest of the way up the walls. Around the top of the walls, add white crown molding. On either side of the door and either side of the window, add curtains made out of dark teal velvet hung on gold curtain rods and gold curtain rings.
And this is the image it rendered…
That’s pretty good! I mean, the curtains are a little wonky on the door, and there’s no way I’d ever hang curtains around a single door or window on two separate rods. So that rod above the door would be one continuous curtain rod. But other than that, it did a pretty good job and at least gives us an idea of what it will look like. It even got the trim right around the door. 😀 I love it!
UPDATE: Okay, I tried one more time with the exterior just to make a few changes. This is the prompt I gave ChatGPT as a follow-up to the first exterior image it rendered:
Keep everything about this image exactly the same with the following exceptions…
- Make the two short evergreen plants much taller — at least six feet tall.
- Move the two navy blue container planters with the greenery and colorful flowers back against the house instead of having them towards the front of the concrete porch.
- Add a small pergola above the door with brackets mounted to the stone on either side of the door. Make the pergola the same width as the concrete porch.
And this is the image it rendered…
I mean, it’s not quite what I had in mind. Those trees are a little too perfect and pointy for my taste, and the pergola looks a bit weighty for that door. But overall, I like the idea!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Have you thought about doing the same idea with one of the windows on the side of the house instead?
That won’t work. Those windows will flank our bed, and that’s the only wall that makes sense for our bed.
Pure curiosity- why would the bed not work on the wall the door will go on? My assumption is that there isn’t enough room for bed and nightstands on that wall?
Im excited to see this room come together!
That window is off center, which means the bed would be off center. That wouldn’t leave enough room for a Hoyer lift on Matt’s side of the bed. There’s not a solid wall opposite the bed where we can put a TV for Matt. The TV would have to be on the wall to the side of the bed, which wouldn’t work for Matt. There would be no room for a chair because the natural position for it if the bed is on that wall would be in the corner between the window and the bathroom door, but there’s not enough room.
It basically just throws off the entire plan, the entire layout, of the room, and leaves little room for things that we need.
Ahhhh, makes perfect sense. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I was trying to picture it all in my mind.
Wow! Those pictures are amazing! It’s going to look so beautiful.
Looks good. I was wondering though if there was some other way you could camouflage an actual built in ramp? A fatalist scenario came to mind of having the stashed outside ramps…please God forbid, but what if Matt was alone, or you had passed out?
Sadly, in those scenarios, he wouldn’t be able to get out on his own anyway. Both of our fates would be in the hands of God at that point. 🙂
I have to say I had no idea that ChatGPT could do that. You were so specific, especially for the interior picture. And it looks amazing! I agree with you about the pergola. What a great solution!
It’s so much fun! But yes, you have to be painfully explicit in your instructions or it will take lots of artistic license and you’ll end up with a rendering that looks nothing like what you want. 😀
Just a thought but in an emergency, I wouldn’t want to fumble around with temporary ramps. Would you consider a side ramp neatly camouflaged behind some landscaping instead?
I’ll have to see if that can be worked around the gas meter once the steps are in. If it can fit, and if it can be camouflaged, I’m all for it.
I would think the landing would have to be bigger so it could clear the meter, but it might work. Not sure how much property you have there by the neighbors property line though.
We put French doors in our guest room at the front of our house. The room is set pretty far back from the front wall of the living room rather than being an extension of that wall. We built a deck as an outside landing off the doors. We also had an issue with the gas meter being off to the side of the doors. Our solution was to make that section of the deck removable. It’s really just a panel sitting on the joists. The rest of the deck is built the normal way. The gas company doesn’t actually read the meter where we live. They have a SCADA system and the usage data is telemetered. It’s just so the meter can be accessed if necessary.
Your mock up looks great, but if you want a wider landing, it’s something the think about.
If you’re open to sharing pictures, I’d love to see them! I’d especially be interested to see removable deck section when it’s removed and the gas meter is accessible. No pressure, but if you’re open to it, my email is: [email protected] 🙂
I was thinking of that as well.
We have and use temporary ramps all the time at a venue i work at.
they are so simple and easy and take absolutely no time at all. and
even if you are fumbling – you literally cannot stuff them up. even
upside down they’d still do the job. 🙂
the cost and impact of a big permanent ramp when you’ll most likely
never use it … the temporary ones are perfect for this situation.
Perfect ant shouldn’t be ridiculous costly.
I wonder if a ramp could be designed to pull out from under the porch, so you wouldn’t have to lift it into place.
Oh, now that’s an interesting idea!
Yes this! I was thinking you build stairs and landing like your front porch with a telescopic ramp or at least store a ramp underneath. And it matches the look of your front porch but on a smaller scale.
Yes. Like in a U-Haul. How the ramp pulls out from underneath the box of the truck. Just might work
Brilliant idea! Good thinking Peggy!
Great ideas. Love them all.
I love it. It looks so you. Hopefully the contractor will be a good one and this will be a quick and easy job, not that there is any such thing in the contracting world, but you know what I mean. Very pretty.
Cheers to you and Matt!
I went back to the very first contractor I used to do work on this house. He’s great and very dependable! I should have stuck with him all along.
I would caution planting shrubs that close to the foundation. Not only do they tend to stain your house black as they grow, the roots become invasive. They always look nice in photos, but become a problem once established.
1. The proper spacing for shrubs around a home is 3 feet from the foundation.
2. Whether or not the roots become “invasive” is determined by the particular variety of shrub.
3. Recommended plants:
a. Green Mountain boxwood in that space with the rootball planted 3 feet from the foundation will be fine.
b. She could also choose Mr. Bowling Ball arborvitae if she wanted a round shrub that doesn’t get too tall.
c. For the corner where she mentioned wanting something taller, North Pole arborvitae or Stonehenge Yew would be fine also.
4. I have shrubs planted all along my home’s foundation (spaced appropriately) and none of them have turned my house black.
None of the plants mentioned here have roots that would be damaging to the foundation when planted appropriately. They are also low maintenance evergreens that will not require much time so she can focus on Matt and her DIY projects.
A way around that, is planting them into pot plants but burying the pots to hide them.
We did that to control some of the faster growing species.
Is it possible to divide the lawn area in front of the door and stairs with landscaping. Maybe a pretty hedge of some sort and a small patio(so no grass needed) a private little morning patio. It would need a opening toward the side of course for Matt
Probably! I’ll have to work through all of those details.
I was thinking about this, too. A railing would also make it clear that no newspaper should be put in front of this door, and could contain a flip-up ramp with gate latches to keep it up except in an emergency. It’s more concrete, but solves the grass problem.
What if…your single door had a balcony like railing which would surround a small porch…which would lead to a ramp on the side of your house?! It would require Matt’s wheelchair making a hard right turn out of the door, then another hard right to go down the ramp on the side of the house. In my mind this would look better with French doors. You could have a wood deck there (like the front porch) and cut outs for your meter & clean out. Landscaping could hide most of it except for the parts you’d like to accentuate. In the end, you’d have a ramp in place, with no need to fumble in the dark or smoke (worst case scenario).
I hope I explained it enough for you to get the gist of my idea.
If I can do something like that without preventing easy access to the gas meter, I’ll consider it. It’s all about that gas meter, though. I can’t block access or make it difficult to access.
I would leave out the curved portion of the pergola and the upright piece behind the curve, and just have the wide brackets. I would think if the back board is anchored to the house, it should be enough to hold it up, or am I wrong? Anyway, I actually like it even without the pergola, and the door is not as obvious without it. My only concern with not having a walkway is getting Matt’s wheelchair across the ground. What if it’s snow, rain, muddy? Even dry grass will be tough for his type of chair, right? And if there’s fire, imagine trying to hurry getting away from the building. You may even be dealing with your dog on a leash along with Matt! (Can you tell I run every possibility in my head? Fear of fire is my #1 fear! ) If the walk is considerably narrower than the front porch walk, it should be obvious it’s secondary, and you can always post a sign by that door “for emergency use only!”
Wow, that’s really impressive. I need to get this ChatGPT so I can redesign my living room layout. Did you have to install an app for that?
The idea of a pull out ramp stored underneath the steps on the left side is a great idea. You’ll need to make them deep enough from the front of the house that you have room to clear the meter. And you would need to keep the landscaping low on the left side and flexible enough that you could pull the ramp quickly out and lay it down. Also think about making the first step out wide enough that you can maneuver him out in the wheelchair and have enough room to step around him on all sides without falling off yourself. you’re more experienced than all of us in maneuvering equipment for him, but I was thinking that if it were me, I would want to be able to push straight out without any step down from the base of the door. And then have enough room for you to get out and around him. Also, are there door with that would be a little wider and a little easier. Still something single door and 15 light?
Great ideas. And the definition of good brainstorming is letting ideas from many people flow in together to get the one best idea at the end. You do this beautifully with your readers.
There’s a ChatGPT app, but I just use the website on my laptop.
Wow, that ChatGPT program is amazing! Those renderings look great. Only one question: have you considered a low-growing shade-tolerant ground cover for that area instead of grass?
I’ll use anything there that will grow in the shade. 😊 It doesn’t have to be grass.
If you were to make the landing big enough for a simple patio table and chairs, and planted tall shrubbery around it to make it look more private, or some kind of easily removed fencing in case of an emergency, that would hopefully not confuse anyone coming to the front door. Sort of like a private patio off the bedroom. Then plant low-growing ground cover that would deter anyone walking on it. How often does the gas company check the meter?
I’m actually not sure. It seems like the guy is here once a month, but I really don’t pay attention.
What an amazing layout. I was wondering if a ramp could be coordinated in the concrete stairs? I have seen that in Rome where two narrow smooth paths run along the stairs at the width of the wheels, plus some. They are decoratively placed and are not obvious unless you needed them, say for a stroller.
Looks wonderful – my only thought is that the landing should be wider. If you had to jockey Matt’s wheelchair around you could easily step off the landing or trip over one of the pots…..
Love the pergola! Could you turn the steps to the outside corner of house, and have a wheelchair ramp there? Could do a flower bed in front of the ramp so wouldn’t be noticeable from the street view.
I would have the landing even with the bottom of the door. If you are in an emergency, you want to get out fast. Also is the landing deep enough for turning the wheelchair and hold you, Matt and the wheelchair?
Otherwise it is a great solytion especially with the aluminum ramp!
Since this is not an entrance door & it’s on the front of the house you don’t want it to stand out. I would not add the pergola or paint the door. I would treat it more like a window.
Love the single door and the arbor above is a beautiful accent!
I’m sorry, I can’t wrap my head around this, Kristi: you’re going ahead with a door off the bedroom because you feel the need for extra-speedy rescue of Matt in the event of a fire . . . but then, in the event of a fire, you’ll be racing to haul Matt out of bed with a lift (or huffing and puffing to drag him out of bed into his chair sans lift), scurrying to get him out onto the small porch, and then . . . and then . . . parking him there while you hurriedly run around to the side of the house to retrieve a portable ramp and drag it back to the steps, get it properly situated over the steps, and then get Matt down from the porch to move him further out to safety? I speak as one who both worked in police/fire/rescue public safety and dealt with my wheelchair-bound mother for 19 years. What you’re about to do is NOT a time saving in an emergency! You might have other justifications for wanting to install an outer door while avoiding a ramp installation there, but be honest with yourself and don’t delude yourself with the thought it will save time in an emergency. What you describe would easily be equalled by the time it takes to get Matt out the existing front door. You could easily stumble or trip on the steps and fall trying to get down and deal with this portable ramp, then fumble around getting it perfectly situated. If you break a leg or arm in the process, how will you help Matt? If you’ve never been in a fire (I have), you have no idea how narrow your vision becomes and how you struggle to slow your mind and reactions in order to behave very deliberately so as to move a totally disabled person without getting hurt yourself (which leaves them totally helpless). Maybe either totally rethink this ramp situation, or forgo the new door entirely.
Your Chat GPT ‘tutorials’ are so great! Thanks!
The house I grew up in was built as handicap accessible. My Dad designed it & he was in a wheelchair. We had a ramp at the front & back entrances to the house. The front door opened onto a large concrete, covered porch with stairs straight out. The ramp went down the side of the house & was “hidden” behind a very short brick wall. The brick wall was “hidden” behind a row of azalea bushes. You couldn’t even tell it was there from the street. As others have mentioned, in an emergency, time is of the essence, for that reason I wanted to tell you how we had a built in ramp that was pretty well hidden with bushes. I love following your home renovation journey!
Any reason not to put the door on the side of the house? It’d put the bed against that front wall giving you easier access to the left side of the bed for Matt. But dunno which side y’all sleep on
Personally I’d not like a bedroom door going to the street but a side door, perhaps with a little privacy fence, would be fine.
Maybe subconsciously you were thinking double doors because of ease of exiting. I know from our experience (I’m the rider) getting a chair through a single door can cause pause for thinking if there are other obstacles.
I love the look of the single door with the pergola. I may have missed a post and/or discussion but I wondered about making the concrete steps a bit wider so that the top step could function as a small patio. I love that look on a home. I think it adds so much charm and would be a wonderful place to enjoy a cup of coffee on a slow morning. Or a nice glass of wine at the end of an evening. Either way it will be a great addition and will solve a safety concern, for sure. 🙂