Linderhof's Back Door

The planters by the back door are filled with begonias in the summer -- usually pink ones. We like pink and it seems to play well against the brick.

And the planters by the back door are filled with pansies in the spring . . . giving us smiling faces to greet us as we enter through the back door.

This door is what was called the "service door" when the house was built in the 1920's. It's grand for a service door with the overhang with the great corbels holding up a small roof and really great Craftsman Style light fixtures on each side of the door. We didn't put the planters there -- they were there when we acquired Linderhof. But we like them and fill them each year with an array of flowers depending on the season.

Besides being the "service door" -- it is the door to the basement -- you enter and you're on a landing -- to the left and down a 3/4 flight of stairs finds you in the basement or you can go up three steps to another landing and through another door and you're in the kitchen!

At the top of the second landing was where the ice box once stood -- it was easy for the iceman to deliver ice -- through the door and up a short flight of steps -- easy on an iceman with a 100 pound block of ice to carry.

This was where the groceries were delivered. Actually, anything but mail coming to the house, would be delivered to this door in the 20's. It would be the door where repairmen were let in. It was not a "guest door" but a "service door".

We're delighted that our basement door is so fancy!!! And sometimes, because the porch is screened and there are flowers in these grand planters, we have people knocking on the back door thinking that it is the front door!!!!

But it is still the "service door" and yikes, if anyone would be admitted to Linderhof through this door, past the shelves of pots and past the larder into the kitchen. The old saying about "back door guests" doesn't apply to Linderhof -- the back door is just that -- a back door -- to get us from house to driveway and nothing more.

No, when we hear knocking at this door -- we go to the porch and invite them inside that way! Through the front door. The proper way.

It's Saturday which means that it is Pink Saturday. Please join Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for other Pink Saturday Posts!