Door

When Jamie and Ann Pezzulla decided to sell their Timonium home, they knew the outside appearance mattered as much as what was inside. So they weeded and mulched the front gardens, replaced the screens on the side porch, hung an American flag and cleaned the front siding. But they didn't stop there. Understanding that the front door is a key component in the first impression a house makes on potential buyers, the Pezzullas went an extra step. Their front door was stripped and repainted, and the hardware was replaced, giving it a polished look.

When asked to use a full-sized door as a canvas, some artists created designs with animals, flowers or abstract shapes. Columbia artist Linda Press painted a picture of another door. Her painting depicts a door opening onto a view of the Tuscany countryside in Italy, and, painted on the other side of the real door, is a view looking into a house. "It just seemed made for this door project to have a door to paint in the door," she said. "Then it gives you a nice three-dimensional quality.

Six years ago, a Miami dentist discovered a warped piece of wood buried under newspapers, cardboard boxes and trash at a Florida auction house. His winning bid: $37.50.Since then, Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery has thrown a $250,000 offer at Barry Ragone for that piece of wood -- which in fact is an ancient door that once guarded Torah scrolls at an Egyptian synagogue.In recent months, Ragone has fielded entreaties from another major museum.What was once just another auction item is now sparking controversy over where it should go and how it should be displayed.

It's hard to get good census help these days, in a booming high-employment economy. So the U.S. government held a Census 2000 job fair yesterday at the 5th Regiment Armory, looking for hundreds of counters -- enumerators -- to carry out this constitutional requirement. Jaimar Davenport, 16, took the first test of the day, hoping to land his first job at an hourly wage of $13.75. He and his friend, Wayne Cooper, 17, both city high school students, concentrated hard on the 28 questions involving simple math and logic.

Police didn't find the proverbial smoking gun when they were investigating their case against Michael Houck, but they did find few smoking cigarettes.Yesterday, Houck, co-owner of Gringada Restaurant and Cantina Columbia's Harper's Choice Village, became the first Howard County restaurant owner fined for violating one of the toughest anti-smoking policies on the East Coast, police said.What brought him down was an open and shut case of a different sort. The door to the bar area of his restaurant was open and not shut -- as county law requires -- allowing cigarette smoke to enter his dining area, police said.

THINKING ABOUT renovating a kitchen or bath? Turning a spare bedroom into a family room with an outdoor deck? You've probably spent some time standing in the doorway surveying the space, checking out the placement of doors and windows, and musing on your options.If we put the stove over there, we could move the fridge over beside the door is there room for a dishwasher? If we put the new bathtub right where the old one was ... is there room for a whirlpool?If you're looking at the space as static, however, take another look: It's not as hard as you might think to alter the size and position of wall openings.

Real estate brokers often say that one of the most important features of a house is its curb appeal. And the most eye-catching aspect of a house, the brokers say, is usually the front door. Homeowners with even the most ordinary-looking houses can get a healthy infusion of curb appeal, the brokers say, by simply replacing a drab, nondescript entryway with a new low-maintenance, energy-efficient front door. "This is the first thing people really focus on when they approach your house," said Aris Crist, an architect in Greenwich, Conn.

Residents of a Columbia neighborhood were forced to evacuate their homes for about two hours yesterday when a fake bomb was found at a house's front door.State fire marshal officials said the fake bomb was planted at a residence in the 8600 block of Worn Mountain Way in east Columbia's Long Reach village.An appraiser who came to visit the house, which neighbors said was being foreclosed on, discovered a letter pinned to the door warning that the door would explode if opened, fire officials said.

It is not a backyard deck. It is not a wraparound porch. It is the stoop. And that is something entirely different. In the city, the stoop is a gathering place, in the way of an African market, or a town square. It is a listening post. A haven and a hearth. When the weather is warm, families, friends, neighbors and passers-by convene on the stoop and catch up on the day's goings-on. They pass messages and talk smack, they gossip. They cluck their tongues and hoot and whisper. They marvel at the babies: "Good Lord, that girl is getting big!"

Andrew Leonard received a check from the city to repair his broken front door and a phone call from Mayor Sheila Dixon, more than two months after police stormed his house in a raid on the wrong address and one day after his plight was reported in The Baltimore Sun. "We're done and satisfied and moving on with our lives," said Leonard, 33, who lives in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Medfield. "Everything is as it ought to have been, only much, much later than one would expect." Leonard had been trying to recoup damages to his home since Feb. 25, when Baltimore police knocked down his front door and searched his home while investigating a drug case.