I have a number of 8 foot doors with single latches. Only the french door is a significant problem - they are solid wood entry doors and the sealing is not perfect although there is no warping after 3 years. Triple is definitely better but you don't have too....We have them at a house in high wind areas and they are great. That area requires triple latch on all doors with glass I think - we have it on a glass 6'8" door (as well as a 8 ft door) but not a solid one. Anyway - they seal great and the security is amazing. Imaging kicking in a door with triple point latches into a steel frame.... Style is one thing - air sealing, longevity and security are another. I honestly think I would do triple point on any exterior door if money wasn't an issue.

The front door is just ugly aside from not being very weather tight. During the winter it leaks a lot of cold air from all sides of it. It's a solid core door, that has been dinged up through the years, no window either. We want something which will let in light to the hallway. Plus, the existing screen door, is a cheap one with fake stained "glass" in it and is falling apart. We recently painted it which improved it's appearance dramatically but doesn't take care of the problems it has. Plus it does nothing for the overall appearance of the home. We've been able to stop some of the air leakage with weather stripping, but because of the way the lock is installed it tends to jamb and not close properly if we use enough to really make it as leakproof as it needs to be. Thanks for the links for the French door tho. I do agree with you on the point of it going to look like a front door in the living room if I use something else - which has been part of my problem all along and why we haven't yet jumped into replacing this one. I want to make sure I pick the absolute right door here or it's going to really look terrible!

Timely thread! I just spent the last two months shopping for a replacement patio french door plus a regular door coming into my laundry/mud room entrance. Will share my experiences if it helps. I did not want interior blinds in my french door (which, even though it is on the back of the house, it is my main entrance). Why? I knew I would never close them! We don't need the privacy that much. I did choose interior grids - they may mot look quite as authentic, but they will sure be easier to clean plus no painting. I priced Lowe's "house brands" - Reliabilt and Benchmark (which I think is made by Thermatru), plus Pella and Anderson. I just could not see paying the price for Pella or Anderson. I ended up with ordering Thermatru which, from my research, is a middle of the road (slightly higher end than Reliabilt, but cheaper than Pella and Anderson. I started shopping/researching through a true building supply/door and window shop for Thermatru, but actually ordered from a local small, town building supply store. I am getting it cheaper than the Lowe's house brands. It is going to be around $800. We will install ourselves (not, our handy-man will with the assistance of DH). I am actually replacing an older, 20 year old Thermatru which was metal and metal typically does not hold up that long. It is rusting out at the bottom. On to the mud room. I am replacing a pine wood slab door, which has absolutely no insulating value, but I just wanted a plain-jane fiberglass kitchen type door with the window in the top. I went with a cheaper HD house brand, Masonite, and I did order the blinds in this door. It is not hung yet, but sure looks good. The sales staff in Home Depot and Lowes really vouch for the interior blinds. They all tell me they have very few "failures" and they can be replaced if necessary. When I questioned how well the interior blinds would hold up, one of the sales guys gave this example: "We have a display door set up in the store - every shopper that walks by has to "try them out" so they probably get opened and close approximately 25 times a day and we have not had a failure yet". Makes sense. Just my 2 cents - I highly recommend you look at Thermatru. Tuesday

Oly - Don't mind sharing at all... Its 3100 sq/ft, 4 br and 3.5 baths. The balcony area is off the bonus room and not the master. Here are some pictures from soon after we moved in so it looks a little bare but truth be told we are still trying to get the place properly decorated! Maggie - thank you very much... I was just trying to find out what company did the shutters so I could find the exact color but wasn't able to get that info. It was one of the color options from the shutter manufacturer so we didn't pick out the paint at home depot or whatever. I'll dig around some more and hopefully get the color name to you. We were looking for that french blue look and think we found just that so we were very pleased.