Door Dilemas

I have one week to decide on doors! Ahhh! I've been all grumpy about how long everything is taking and now I feeling the pressure of actually having to make decisions.  And I've got the busiest week this week, and don't even get me started on the kind of Monday I've just had!

 The front doors and the back patio doors are taking over my brain. It's just something I want to get right because it would be a not fun re-do if we ended up hating our choices. 

Let's start with the back patio/great room doors. Our room is going to look a lot like the room in the pictures above, with maybe not as high ceilings. We have right now a french door in the room like the picture shoes with windows on either side. We have been going back and forth between french doors and sliding doors and the possibility of french sliding doors shown in the third picture. I change my mind on a daily basis. I even presented the options today to my interior design students and I have to say it was sooo cool to hear them give their choice with their support of why. They are really learning something, well except for the kid who told me to "dip the door in camo and no one will notice it" #teachingfail! 

Here are the pros and cons presented:

1. Hinged Inswing French Door - It's an affordable option for allowing us to have a nice wide opening from the great room to  the back patio. When opened all the way it's a 6' opening which we really love. The cons are the door need space to swing open which takes away from the space in the room which is already I feel on the smaller side since no furniture can be places against walls. A screen door is not included and to add an nice durable screen door adds costs. 

2. A normal sliding door - I was surprised at how nice the sliding door looks in the first picture. It definitely became a contender being the most afforable option, comes with a screen and doesnt take up room space. The down side is that it only gives a 3 ft opening to the outside, and isn't as pretty as a french door. As one of my students put.....you don't get the same AHHHH moment when opening a sliding door as you  would  a french door. 

3. French Sliding Doors - When I first asked my builder about the option of getting a french sliding door the idea that it would cost about $1700 more seemed a little too steep. What i love about the french sliding doors is that there is no swing taking up space in the room, we would still get the ease of a sliding door and we would get the 6ft opening we were wanting. Today after talking to Jake's uncle, we might even be able to get a better deal on the door and it has a screen door. 

We are hoping that we can get it to work out with Jake's uncle. We would need to pay an engineering fee to check the supports on the wall, but instead of it costing $1700 more it might be more like $1000 more. So we will just have to see what happens. 

So.....what option would you do? What option would you stay away from? 

Now on to figure out the front door!