See the Dinosaurs Before They're Gone

There are only a few more weeks to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum before the exhibit closes for a five-year long renovation. The Fossil Hall exhibit will close to the public after April 27th.

K has recently gotten into dinosaurs - or at least pretending to be one. We take a music class at Sitar Arts Center and the teacher does a version of Jim Along Josie in which we pretend to be various animals. Her favorite part is when we "STOMP like a dinosaur, Jim along Josie. STOMP like a dinosaur, Jim along Joe." So I couldn't pass up her last chance to see real dinosaur bones for a while.

Last Thursday we met up with some friends at 10am, when the museum opens. Between the spring tourists and the school field trips, the line just to get in the door of the museum was quite long, and inside it was quite crowded.

The museum has extended hours most days this spring, from 10am-7:30pm. Visiting in the evening is probably your best bet if you are looking to beat the crowds.

After exploring the dinosaur hall, we moved on to the "Ice Age" exhibit. We particularly enjoyed looking at some of the smaller early mammals, but some of the larger ones were declared "too scary."

The kids' favorite part was probably the small circular stair area - it looked like a place where a movie should be playing - next to the scary creature pictured above. The four 2 year olds spent a long time climbing and playing there.

We meandered through a special exhibit on the Mud Masons of Mali and through the Ocean Hall before heading upstairs to the Insect Zoo.

When we'd had enough of the crowds, we took a short walk over to the sculpture garden to let the kids play and eat lunch.

Dreaming of a New Door

This spring we are going to be doing substantial work to update and restore the front of our rowhouse. We applied for and got a grant through the DC Historic Homeowner Grant Program (another post about that process is in the works) and between that money and some of our own, we are finally going to fix up the front of the house.

They'll be peeling off the lead paint, pointing up the bricks, painting, sanding, fixing, installing new windows, and putting in new doors.

I am so excited about ALL of it. But I currently have a bit of a door obsession.

Last week our contractor emailed me some links to new front doors from companies that he has used on other houses in the neighborhood. Buffelen Door has some entry doors that match the style of our home, and Lemieux Door's "Le Chateau" collection also has doors in the style of our rowhouse.

The last few days I've had doors on the brain. I've been slowing down the car to door-gaze. I've snapped pictures at stoplights and on walks through the neighborhood. As I've been door-gazing this last week, I have noticed that actually a LOT of doors in NW DC are half glass or full glass. Some have no bars, but a solid wood interior door that also locks.

Some other glass doors have a bar door, like this one.

Our house currently has an entry that is open to the outside world with a half glass door inside. We have an unattractive grate on the back side of the door for security that came with the house. As my husband says, a "harry homeowner" security fix.

I'm not wild about bars on doors, and I'd like to reclaim the entryway as part of the house. I want a door that lets in light, but I also don't want to have a second interior door to lock in order to feel safe. So for now, I'm leaning towards a door with upper windows. Perhaps something like this door with two upper windows.

Or this one without moulding.

Or even this one with three windows...

Of course, all of this depends on what the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) will approve. I spoke to them years ago when we first started thinking about replacing our front door. I asked about french doors because our opening is 42" wide and it looks like there may have once been french doors there, but they advised against them. On our Historic Grant application they asked for us to price a 3 panel wood door, but they ended up not funding that portion of the application. We have a little more leeway to choose what we like since it won't be funded by the grant, but we still have to get their approval on what we choose.

The HPO has a Preservation Brief on door replacement for historic properties which offers a few recommendations, but I'm hoping that they will offer a little more guidance before I fall in love with something. The person we're working with at HPO has offered to come meet at the house before we sign with our contractor to hash everything out, and I'm hopeful that can happen soon.