Cat Eidness beamed as she glanced at her new Fiberglas front door.
“It exceeded our expectations. It looks great,” she said. “They could have picked out the door. Any door would have been an improvement.”
The $5,000 entryway was an early Christmas present, compliments of Therma-Tru Doors, an Ohio-based company with a gift of giving. Cat and Scott Eidness solicited enough online votes to capture the fourth annual Ugliest Door in America contest.
The first-place grand prize – a dazzling new door makeover – was installed Tuesday by a crew from Northwest Door & Window Co. It comes at a good time. The reviled and revered old door was on its last hinge.
“Hopefully, they will haul it away and use it as firewood,” Scott said.
The Eidnesses won in the essay category, describing their home’s disgustingly decrepit entry door. The contest attracted more than 4,000 online votes of Americans coast to coast. Winners were determined from more than 200 entries, 4,100 votes and 809 comments.
“It created this vitriol buzz,” said Sara Theis Alcroft, senior pubic relations manager for Therma-Tru Doors, contest sponsors. “They did a great job campaigning family and friends. Everybody got into the fray.”
Added Cat: “I did a lot of harassing my family and friends.”
The Eidnesses’ battle-scarred, 36-by-80-inch wooden front portal, which belonged to her West Hill home, won the contest’s popular vote. It then was up to the judges to decide.
Cat, a mother of three, caught word of the contest on the Internet, then provided a written plea along with photos of their incredibly ugly original door.
The Eidnesses had tried to repair their front door before. The door, which they believe was the original one when the house was built in 1963, exposed a crack that they filed and shaved to close.
They had started to refinish the door in 2004 (when one window broke) but Scott developed leukemia mid-project.
Today the couple, in addition to being thankful that Scott is now in remission, looks forward to the new door.
“It’s going to be really nice,” Scott said. “They did a nice job.
“I thought it was a long shot,” he said of the contest. “But I’m glad we won … I mean, who wants to be known for having an ugly door?”
