I’m obsessing about our choices for a garage door for a “rustic-contemporary-Japanese-style” house. I participate in Cooks Talk, and it occurred to me that you wise ones (not meaning “wise guys”, but smart guys/gals) might be willing to share your knowlege and opinions.

We must replace a 16′ garage door. I am in sticker shock from the quotes and want to be assured we are getting the best door for the $$. I guess we will opt for an all wood door.
I had earlier talked with a business in Sonoma, CA about a wood, carriage-house style door made in Sacramento by a company called Carriage House Door Company. These are very nice doors and this company is a “premier” carrier, described as being good installers and good at customer service. Now, I have a contractor who is going to replace a header over the door. He said I could still use the company in Sonoma that I had talked with for the door+installation, but he also sent out two reps from other businesses. One deals with Northwest Door Inc and their “Heritage Classic” doors, the other is another “Carriage House Door Co. dealer (but doesn’t come as highly recommended as the Sonoma Co..

One question is, does anyone know about this style from Northwest? The price I was quoted was $5,430, with a Liftmaster 3/4 HP chain driven opener included. We had gotten a price from Sonoma for $2,360. each for two smaller doors. ( Alas, we can’t do two doors because of the space.) Does the price for the 16′ Northwest door seem right?

Another option is a heavy duty steel door with the carriage house door look from First United for $3510., or one plain, raised panel look from CHI price unknown.

We have the world’s ugliest garage stuck onto the side front of a very pretty and stylish little house. Garage has a flat roof, and changing it to a pitched roof is problematical due to the design of the house and roof pitch on the house. So, after replacing the 16′ door I am thinking of having a trellis built to sit on the flat garage roof and extend over the garage door. I would then plant vines to grow over the trellis, hopefully softening the ugly look. We are in a hilly, wooded area with live oaks and firs.

I’d appreciate your feedback very much.