It is just hard for me to imagine...my builder was soooo careful to explain things to me that might be aesthetically irritating, and tried to mitigate. He explained all of the air return locations and made sure I was ok with them, and he even made sure I knew that the glass in our custom door would have those tiny little "tempered glass" engravings in the corner of every pane....didn't want me caught off-guard. I absolutely cannot imagine a builder that could put the electrical box by the front door and not realize it would look terrible and pi$$ the owner off. At the least, he should have warned them when presenting the bid that it would look like that and would cost x$ more to move BEFORE they signed. My builder would be embarrassed having his name on a house where the electrical box was next to the front door. That is crazy.

Oceanna, are you still there? I just noticed your post asking if I'd decided on a door yet. Thanks for asking. I've been going round & round. Shall I get the single door with sidelights, which would be traditional with my somewhat-colonial home: single & sidelights or the double door, which would be more practical & perhaps less fussy: double door I plan to sheath our house with small white shingles, replace the windows with 2 over 2 paned windows with nice wide casings, & put on a red roof. There's an overhang that runs along the front of the house & shades the 1st floor windows. That will get the red roofing also. The house design will be somewhat plain except for the red roof vis a vis the white shingles & the (hopefully not too) ornate door. My foyer is desperate for light, hence the full pane of glass in the doors instead of the standard 6 panel door with sidelights (which *everybody* has in my neighborhood). The art glass would ensure privacy. My house isn't a true colonial, so I think I can stray from the standard colonial order. Plus the glass doors would look so pretty at night with the lights shining from behind them. I think the art glass doors will be fine despite the plainness of the house: it will provide just enough decoration. At least that's what I hope. I'd post a picture of my house, but it's so ghastly right now that I'm sort of embarassed! Anyway, opinions are welcome. Thanks for weighing in.

I have double glass doors and at some point their stained glass was replaced with clear glass. We have double doors to outside that are heavy oak, but even so, when I'm coming down the stairs in my jammies and someone knocks on the door they have a full view...no time to hide! I absolutely HATE that! (you have to go through two sets of doors to get into the house if that makes sense? Victorian thing). After having lived with this for three years, I would push you towards the most distortion possible...Autumn is nice, and you can't see clearly what's on the other side. This is not a bad thing :) We will be putting back in stained glass in a very distorted pattern. You can work a peep hole into a frame if you want one, but that's not such a concern for me...I just want the ability to not answer the fedex man in my sleeping gear!

Hmm, Tiggsy -- looking at the last two doors from mrspete -- you could perhaps combine the best of both? You'd get your arch and your double door, and you could adapt that to the glass and framing used in the bottom photo, to good effect. (Now, to find... or have custom-made...) You could also have it frosted, just to discourage people peeping in.