5 Surprising Benefits of Living with Full View Storm Doors

I thought storm doors were dumb. I didn’t even consider them for our home, until we needed to install a storm door to prevent further water damage at our back deck door.

Our deck door is already a glass door. It just seemed silly to install a glass storm door in front of a glass door. Having two doors seemed overly complicated.

Then, I went shopping for storm doors and learned that they also help insulate your home. Totally makes sense. So, since we live in a harsh winter climate, I decided we should install storm doors on all three of our exterior doors to prevent water infiltration from snow and rain and to insulate our home.

I had no idea the other surprising ways storm doors would completely change our lives for the better.

1. We get more natural light in the front of our house.

The only windows on the front lower level of our house are the one office window and the transom window above our front door. That left our very long foyer, very dark all the time. Now with the storm door on the front, I can leave the front door open and let in a full doors-worth of natural light. It’s so lovely and has me inspired to make better use the office as a sitting area, since it’s a much brighter space now.

2. Our dogs stopped barking.

Strange, but true. Our dogs used to bark at every passerby they could hear and I thought a storm door would make it worse. We’ve experienced the opposite. Now instead of hearing them whimper when I leave to walk the boys to the bus stop, they watch me through the door quietly. They also love to watch the world go by throughout the day. And to my delight, they don’t bark at the pedestrians that they can see through the door. I think when they could only hear them, they didn’t know if they were intruders or not. Now that they can see them walking on the sidewalk across the street, they just watch them go by…even if they’re walking a dog.

3. I worry less about our puppy running out the door.

When the boys go out to play, I used to lock them out of the house, because we feared our puppy would run out if they opened the door. They had to knock or ring the doorbell to let me know they were home. Now with the storm door, even if I forget to lock it, they can clearly see if the dogs are out and they know not to open the door until I grab the puppy.

4. It’s makes our home more inviting.

There’s something magical about being able to see our guests as they walk up to the front door. It’s so much more inviting and I think guests feel expected when they see you coming to greet them.

We loved the storm door on Halloween. It eliminated the doorbell being rung a million times because they could see us waiting with the cauldron of candy.

Another perk is signaling play time to the neighborhood kids. The dogs (sorry lots of dog issues in this house) go nuts when the neighbor kids come and ring the doorbell repeatedly or excitedly pound on the front door. Now, they know if the front door is open and they can see inside, we are home. If the front door is closed, it either means we’re not home or don’t want to be disturbed.

5. My bells are back.

I’m not a big wreath person, but I do like to have something hanging on the front door. My favorite are these bells. Our porch is like a wind tunnel, so the bells used to knock against the door in the wind. Now with the storm door they are protected from the elements. Maybe I’ll turn into a wreath person after all. My sister did make a good point that I could hang a wreath on the front and back doors now, since they each have a protective storm door.

My Two Biggest Fears About Storm Doors Never Came True

I put off installing storm doors for years, because of these two fears. Now I wish I had come to my senses sooner.

1. Aren’t storm doors hard to install?

We even saw neighbors hiring installers to do it for them. Since we wanted to buy three storm doors, we didn’t want to spend extra to have them all installed.

We hoped we could do it ourselves, but I’m truly skeptical of anything that says E-Z Install on the package. Thankfully, the storm doors we purchased lived up to their promise. It took less than 45 minutes to install each door with just a drill and driver. No sawing or level required. The doors we chose are the Anderson 3000-Series Storm Doors with 45-Minute Easy Install.

2. Won’t everyone be able to see inside our home?

I worried about people seeing in our home. But when I thought about it more, the two back doors are already glass and people can see in at night. Those doors are in our kitchen and basement where we spend a lot of time.

There was just something about the front door being open that bothered me. Even though our front door opens into a long foyer and you can’t see directly into our main living area. But it’s just a storm door. We always have the option to close the front door. If you think about it a storm door is no different from a window. With the window you can close your blinds or curtains, with a storm door you can close the regular door.

The surprising thing is…I like to keep the front door open all the time. During the day you really can’t see inside the house unless you’re standing on our porch, because it’s brighter outside, darker inside. At night, unless we’re expecting company, we shut the front door. Because of all the benefits above, I like to keep the front door open as much as possible.