Enclosed Front Porches

Do any of you have an enclosed front porch?

I never had one before this house and I feel weird when random people walk into it and knock on the solid door to our house. Last night we had some fundraiser person that started knocking on our porch door. I was in the middle of finishing HP and didn't really want to get up. B's back is out of commision again so he really can't move.

Well I left the porch door unlocked, not thinking. The fundraiser admitted that she found the door unlocked and walked in our enclosed porched and knocked on the door.

Am I being silly? I almost consider that an invasion of property. I didn't say anything to her about it because I wasn't sure if that's something Taboo or if I'm just being too protective. I just know to lock that door up from now on!!

We have an enclosed front portch (and an enclosed back porch). I only lock the front porch door if the cats are out there; same for the back door. I didn't lock them years ago and our neighbors grandson decided he wanted to see the kitties; I caught him just as he was opening the door to look inside! (I was not happy )
Anyway, if someone knocks on our outer door, I generally don't hear it. I prefer for them to come in and knock on the inner door. That means on Halloween I really have to be listening---our porch is usually done up pretty scary, and small kids are afraid to come inside. If someone opens the outer door to come in I can hear the door squeak and decide if I really want to answer it, too. (I know, shame on me)
You'll get used to it; people are just confused about which door is the boundary.

When J and I lived with another couple, their house had an enclosed porch, but the doorbell was outside the porch so people typically rang it and then either waited for an answer (if they didn't know us) or just walked in (if they did -- we had an open-door policy). The kitties would sit out on the enclosed porch and observe the world, and we'd live the inner door cracked open a bit to allow them to come and go (except in the wintertime -- if they wanted out on the porch that badly, they had to wait to be allowed back in, because we'd lose too much heat by leaving the inner door open). I kind of miss the enclosed porch, because it operated as an extra "buffer zone" between the cats and the terrible, terrible outside, but in all honesty, our cats never try to make a break for it ...

I should probably mention, though, that the enclosed porch of the house where I used to live did not look welcoming in the slightest. There was old furniture out there (some of it kind of nasty-looking), plus boxes of junk waiting to be taken to the dump or to be donated (depending on level of junkiness), plus other random pieces of stuff just left lying around. People would see the cluttered front porch and, unless they knew us, would assume it wasn't an enclosed porch so much as an additional living room, or would be so frightened by all the bizarre stuff they saw there and would run away. (Ummm, J and I were not responsible for that mess. We just lived there. The cats thought it was awesome, though.)

If the same porch was not "INCLOSED" would`nt you expect people to walk up on it to knock on the door?
I think a lot of people would assume that if it`s a porch door that you may not be able to hear them knock....so that may be why they go ahead and feel free to let themselves in.
How about getting some kind of a lock that would keep them outside, unless you answer the door and let them in? (This would also keep from them accidently letting your cats out if you have INDOOR ONLIES , but allow them on the porch)
A small slide bolt lock is quite inexpensive....and while it might be possible to jerk it open, most people would respect the fact that the door did`nt just open with a simple push. (Unless it was someone breaking and entering....but then the screen would`nt keep them from getting in...would`nt matter how STRONG the lock was!.....Hope that NEVER happens to you though!!!)
Linda

A person should never "try" any door to see if it is open, with the one exception if he or she lives there. Technically, that woman didn't even have a right to be on your property without your permission. She was bold and rude, IMO.

I agree, Swampwitch, that is very rude.
To me that would be the equivalent of walking into someone's house uninvited. I would be pretty mad about it, if the person was harmless or not.

I would freak if someone just opened up the door to my porch. My front porch is like a sun room and we have a table and chairs and our freezer in it. The storm door is always locked and the door actually leading into the house is open all summer long because the cats like to hang out at the windows. The interior door is only closed if there is no one at home.

Even if they tried to open the door the dogs would be there is no time flat so that would discourage people.

Now in back we have a mud room. I have only had one person actually come in that screen door and knock on the inner door and that was a pizza delivery person. I think they did knock on the screen first though but we didn't hear them so they came in and knocked on the inside door.

I would never think of opening a door to an enclosed porch. If my knocks are not answered I would either leave or maybe try to knock at a side or back door if it was something important.

In our old house we had both the front and back porches enclosed. I kept the front one locked all the time so both the cats could be out on it and I didn't have to worry about someone letting them out, and when they were inside I didn't have to worry about someone coming onto the porch and taking something.

We left the back porch unlocked with a note on the door stating that people needed to come inside and ring the doorbell or we wouldn't hear them. The back porch door was always opened unless the cats were out there and then it was locked so someone again wouldn't accidently let the cats out.

I think possibly a reaction to someone coming in on your enclosed porch may have something to do with what is acceptable in your location...you know, how it`s preceived.
An intresting thing happened here once that made me think that some people are more protective over certain things in different areas of the world than others.
We live in Michigan.....our son-in-laws parents ,who are from Georgia, were up for a visit and we were all going to take a walk together down one of the country roads (The road was located in front of the neighbors who lived behind us) His parents started to walk across the neighbors yard to get to the road...so we redirected them that we would be going around, using the long driveway-lane to get to the road. They then asked if our neighbors were not friendly with us . I thought that an odd question and responded that we had no problems with any of our neighbors being unfriendly.
They wanted to know why we had to go around instead of "cutting across" the folks yard, since it was such a shorter distance, to which I replied that it was just a matter of respect, since we had`nt asked permission.
The response to that was "Well, ya`ll are certainly protective of yer property up here are`nt ya?" ....Apparently if we go to visit them in Georgia they are friendly enough there that we`ll be welcome to walk around wherever we please and folks won`t think a thing of it.
Linda

I kind of think, first off knock on the front porch door, if no one answers, then try the other door.. Sometimes the front poor door knock get echoed by the openess of the room, and no one hears so you really need to knock on the front door

Yea I can see that if it were an open porch then there's no question. However I guess I look at it as: What's the purpose of enclosing it then?!

I guess I'll have to remember to lock it. There is a doorbell by the porch door, but no one ever rings it (its white on a white surface ). We do have a few pieces of furniture out there and all of the empty soda bottles (all 7 bags of them).

I think I'll also go and buy a "No Soliciting" sign too.

I know what you mean. However unless there is a door bell on the outer screen door of the porch HOW would you know if someone was there or not? You probably would not hear them knocking; so if its open, you come up on the porch and knock on the house door.

I feel a bit weird coming into the screened in porch to the other door, but sometimes you just have to do it if you need to talk to the person.

Question - if it was not enclosed and only a big porch, would you feel any different in people coming onto the porch and knocking on the door?

Originally Posted by lunasmom

Yea I can see that if it were an open porch then there's no question. However I guess I look at it as: What's the purpose of enclosing it then?!

I guess I'll have to remember to lock it. There is a doorbell by the porch door, but no one ever rings it (its white on a white surface

). We do have a few pieces of furniture out there and all of the empty soda bottles (all 7 bags of them).

I think I'll also go and buy a "No Soliciting" sign too.

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So there is a door bell on the front porch door. Then it was rude and wrong to just ignore the bell (whether you can see it or not) and walk in to the enclosed portion.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

...Question - if it was not enclosed and only a big porch, would you feel any different in people coming onto the porch and knocking on the door?

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An open porch wouldn't have a door to go through. I think the problem is when someone goes through a door uninvited.

Where I grew up, if you knew the person you went to the backdoor and knocked, sometimes poked your head in and yelled. Backdoors and frontdoors even have different doorbells. That way you knew if it was a knock on the front door you didn't want to talk to that person anyway

I agree, I would be weird about someone going through my porch and knocking too. But then I don't like solicitors in general. When I've worked on campaigns and such, we always left stuff on front doors (which would have been your porch door, not inside) without knocking.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

An open porch wouldn't have a door to go through. I think the problem is when someone goes through a door uninvited.

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Right and that's the purpose behind my question.

If i had an open porch I wouldn't care. Like Swampwitch said though if there wasn't a door on the enclosed front porch then I wouldn't care either. However there is a chain lock and hook and eye to lock up with as well as a doorbell. So that's why I feel weird when someone comes in the enclosed front porch.

Hmmm...maybe I'll email the city police and see what they consider that as...

Growing up in small-town MO, KS, IA, AR, OK and SD, we rarely knocked on the front porch door. Often didn't knock at all but rather yelled out to see if anyone was home.

If we didn't know the people, it was acceptable to go to the "main" door. I think the porch was viewed as more public somehow. Maybe because people spend so much time out there in the warm months visiting with neighbors?

If anyone tried that here in Portland, it would be considered very rude. Probably a regional thing.

Another poster mentioned crossing yards. That was the same with us. No one would have thought twice about it.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

A person should never "try" any door to see if it is open, with the one exception if he or she lives there. Technically, that woman didn't even have a right to be on your property without your permission. She was bold and rude, IMO.

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i have to agree with that
i will only open the front like that if i am friends with the person in the house.

Maybe when you get your lock, you can also pick up something to make the doorbell more noticeable -- a small picture frame could be tacked on around it, maybe...

However unless there is a door bell on the outer screen door of the porch HOW would you know if someone was there or not? You probably would not hear them knocking; so if its open, you come up on the porch and knock on the house door.

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That's the problem with our porch, the door bell is located on the inner door--one of those big ole twist kind that kids love to play with. I rarely hear anyone knock on the outer door---unless they knock really hard