Taking the Room Doors off
Return to DiscussionsWhen we finally achieved the dream of being Empty Nesters, (love our
kids but were tired now) the first thing I wanted to do is take the
interior doors off except for the bathrooms. I just love the openness of
it all is why. Our bedroom is on the 2nd floor, it might as well have
no door as it's never closed as there is no reason for anyone to be up
there anyway. We have had nudist guest spend the night and they didn't
see the reason for shutting the guest room door on the main floor
either.
I never did get those doors off, the initial response
from the Mrs if I recall was a puzzled look and a couple 'what if's' so I
just kind of let it go. Now I am getting serious thoughts about bldg a
new house on a wooded property the Mrs owns. Besides the design of
total house privacy for the build the second thoughts are don't build it
with interior doors (except bathrooms) to begin with.
Wonder your thoughts and ideas.
I live alone so I don't need doors for privacy. Neither do my occasional guests. But my house is twice the size I want or need and I don't see me getting rid of it unless this real estate market makes an about face. So I need some doors to close off half the house so I can heat and cool just the half I live in. I took my bedroom door off, it wasn't needed and, besides that, it conflicted with my doorway pull-up bar. There are three more doors that I just don't need so I removed them. No problem storing them either. I'm using the other half of the house as a warehouse lol! And I can have them all back on in a matter of minutes if, by some wild chance, a buyer shows up on the horizon. So, at least in my case, sometimes it makes sense to remove doors and sometimes it doesn't.
Can you get pocket doors without locks?
Sure you can.
Pocket doors might be something to consider. Being in the Bldg trades I can tell you they can get to be a pain in the arse if they are used very much. Track issues like the Bi-fold closet doors often get. But then I doubt in our case they would get used to very much.
This subject got me thinking about my old boyhood farm house. A few of the doors were removed. Others were still used. In warmer months we could open all the doors and walk through all 7 down stairs rooms without turning back around. We really could walk around the house; sort-a-speak. Also made for good air movement; for in those days we didn't have A/C. Today I'd go for "Pocket" doors.
I had always thought of doors and lending to an appearance of security as well as privacy. Also thought of a closed door as a type of fire wall or fire block. Maybe I am wrong. As for privacy, sometimes even loving couples just want some "me time" away from everyone. Nothing wrong with that. Also, if you ever want to sell your house, I am guessing it would be easier to sell if you had doors. Nice things with doors, you can open when you want and close when you want.