I was chatting to my friend Fay yesterday and I was telling her that way, way before I even met her I had watched with interest her beautiful home being built in Lynfrae. It was on our "short cut to school" route and together with the brand new modern style and the wonderful position of the house in Water Street, it was (and still is) a dream home. When the front door was fitted I was as green as the wooden paintwork on the house. It had a pivot door!! The first one I had ever seen up close. How weird that now, nearly 25 years later we are good friends and I frequently have the pleasure of knocking and entering the wonderful pivot door.
Too funny when John (my late ex-husband) was going through one of his "spiritual and meditating" phases, he paid a (pretty) feng shui consultant (a fortune of money that we did not have) to come and evaluate our home. He was very impressed and taken with all her ideas but when she came up to the bedroom and told him that all his books had to go, he quickly lost interest. "Oh no, no John, bad, bad feng shui having books in the bedroom - it creates too much energy, the bedroom is your sanctuary to sleep, breathe and restore your energy". John without piles of books around him, would have been hard to imagine. She then proceeded to tell him that the en-suite toilet should be chipped out and moved to another wall in the bathroom as it was facing in the wrong direction.
So I am not big on feng shui except I really like the idea of the feng shui money frog. I have one positioned at our front door (Caroline sourced it on her travels with Charl(ie)). A metal frog with an open mouth (facing towards the door) and a whole lot of coins in his belly. This is supposed to help the money flow in through the front door. Whilst I am still not a believer (and still waiting for the flow) it seems a silly idea to move the frog (and he is rather cute) and tempt fate.
Now about my front door. When we were busy renovating our new house the front door caused much debate amongst family and friends, the majority saying "It has to go". We were moving the position of the front door as well and enclosing and knocking out the existing entrance hall. This is what it looked like before:-
The builder Shadley and I had developed a good understanding and early one morning I went to meet him on site. I entered the house alone, the house still had stippled walls and awful carpets but as I walked into the lounge that morning, the sun was shining in through the glass front door (with its very 70's glass) and it was something in the way the light shone through the door that made me fall in love with it. When I told Shadley that we would keep it, he said that he was pleased because it is "just stupid to put a pivot door on a 50's house". Michael was happy too as it had just saved him a couple of thousand rand!!
The door today
Now while writing this post, I am also reminded of one of Gareth's first pre-school birthday parties. He was invited and the family were having the party at the very wealthy grandparents home in Bishopscourt (squash courts, the works). I was quite sad not to be taking him as he was collected by another friend (his first party without his mother). When I collected my darling 4 year old he was full of stories about He-Man and swords but I did not hear much about the house and the squash courts. However, later while he was in the bath he called me:-
Gareth: Mom those people are sooooooooooooooo rich
Mom: Why so Gareth? (expecting to now hear all about the squash courts and swimming pools)
Gareth: Mom, they have a huuuuuuuge door knob. It was so big that I had to use 2 hands to turn it open (now demonstrating with two chubby hands)
Mom: Door knobs are not that expensive Gareth
Gareth: Silly Mom, this door knob was a real diamond!!
it was probably something like this
Moral of the story?
No moral really, but your front door does make an impression whether you are a harassed 27 year old housewife with 3 little boys and dreams of house with a pivot door or an impressionable 4 year old at his first birthday party without his mother.
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