Everyone... I need help in picking out a new front door for my older home, which I guess I would classify as a ranch style. I am going with a wood door that has glass because the entry/foyer is very dark... I need advice on what style and color (paint or stain) best compliments my home... thank your for helping me out!!! I'll be attaching some contenders ..... so look for them in posts that follow because I think I can only attach one photo with each topic, correct?? Image link:

If you can narrow down your choices to three or four, I recommend buying some large plain white poster paper and painting a LARGE swatch of each test color, leaving a 2" white border around the edge so that you don't compare the color with whatever is immediately around it, but still see the color in its intended environment. This works for interior and exterior areas. Hang the swatches with painters tape in the area where you want to try it and let it stay there for a few days days while you think about it and look at it different times of day. Don't rush it! Those little Benjamin Moore paint pods are about $5 and other paint brand sample sizes are inexpensive, too. You can easily paint large swatches with the samples and the expense is minimal compared with the cost of having to do something and then re-do it because the color isn't right. You'll be surprised how different a color can look in larger quantities than on a paint chip. N.E.V.E.R pick a paint color from a paint chip or from an online picture. Monitors, cameras, and computers' calibrations, time of day, seasons, area of the country you live in- so many variables when it comes to how any color looks. It's worth it to use HUGE swatches. Paint chips really are just a start to finding the perfect color. Also, if you find a color is perfect but it's too dark you can have the paint folks mix the color at a % formula- 50% if you want it half as dark, etc.

I am thankful for any and all suggestions! I appreciate all views. The new door is an insulated steel door by Waudena, out of Wisconsin. I do open the casements windows on either side of the front window, but if the door is open I can see my Purple Martin colony and part of the garden from the kitchen. I live in North Dakota with -20 to -40 temps common in the winter, howling winds, banking snow, and all sorts of lovely weather. A storm door is a necessary evil. Still, in the brief but bright summer, I'd love to have a "view."

One thing I noticed about rock beds is that if you don't have landscaping fabric under the rocks, they end up embedded in the soil. I removed 3 layers of different kinds of lava rock, river rock and quartz from in front of my new/old house after we moved in a few years ago (The former owners had refurbished the area with different kinds of rocks each time). Only to find out that the ground beneath them ran downhill (10" in 3 ft.) towards the house (there was fabric underneath). There were other places the former owners used rock also and didn't put fabric underneath and those were the place where the rock was embedded into the soil. Rocks not only sinks when it's muddy but rotting vegetation & soil blown by the wind fills in between the rocks adding to the effect. Being I had all the rocks piled in the driveway, I leveled the ground along the house (slightly slanting away from the house), relaid the river rocks (using fabric underneath) that I washed with the power washer (it only took a portion of the river rocks to get the desired depth after I leveled the ground) and then had a guy come with a loader to remove several yards of excess rock/quartz/lava from the driveway. The area by my house has a northern exposure so little sun gets in there but if you have a southern exposure, rocks will get very hot during the summer sun and will cook any plants planted there. You may get by with potted plants laid on top of the rocks but you'll be more limited in what you can have. Just wanted to share one of the nightmares you might run into doing that. A wheel barrel comes in handy removing rock. You can load it according to your strength or ambition, or both. :-)