Front Door vs Back Door On Waterfront Properties

We are here today to discuss matters of great importance.

Specifically... on a beach house or even a lake house, is the front door of the house the one facing the ocean or the one facing the street?

The fun part of this debate is that both you and I most likely have an opinion on the matter, and we feel very strongly about it... but one can make a strong argument for the other side of the debate.

This is also a debate where, unlike abortion or gun control, it is unlikely that people will hate each other after the discussion.

When building a house on the coast, you sort of design from the water back to the street. There is a reason for that, perhaps several.

There are safety reasons, because the home can be destroyed by the water, be it by the creek rising of the ocean waves crashing. Certain designs can actually save lives, or end them.

There are aesthetic reasons, as the water makes for a spectacular and lucrative visual. A good design takes advantage of that.

When it's time to cash in, and you have to take a picture for the realtor...ideally, you would head out on the water and get a picture of your house from the sea, showing the beach in front of it and the door facing the ocean.

This puts to the "front" in "waterfront," and stimulates the debate as to whether this is the front door of the house in question.

However, in non Venice societies, most travel is by the road rather than the water. The road, in most cases, leads to the house, unless you are looking at the cabin of a mountain man or perhaps the home of the Blair Witch.

As people prefer not to exit the car and then walk around the whole house to gain access, there is usually a door into the house near the street.

The design of the house is also based on this fact much of the time. The home''s entryway is usually near the door road. Most people entering the house approach from the road, especially people who have to knock first.

I know a few houses where a decision by a visitor to use the waterfront entry to seek access could result in a shotgun wound.

So, which is the front door?

I am the wrong person to make this decision. I think that the road entrance of the house is the front door... but when I lived directly on Duxbury Beach, myself and most of my neighbors would refer to the beach door as the front door... and when I bought a home on a lake, I unconsciously switched teams, instinctively referring to the lake-facing door as the back door. No logic or intention motivated this switch.

I ended this dissonance by moving to a cottage on Cape Cod. I only have one door, which I call "the door." While I live on a bay, the door faces neither the beach nor the road. The back door of my house is a purely theoretical concept, involving me jumping out of a window while fleeing a house fire or an unwanted visit by a Mafia enforcer.

In the end, thou shalt do as thou wilt...