Ben’s hard work on the back deck, transforming it into a porch, has created an amazing retreat—screened windows above half-walls that give us an open-air room on the back of the house. It is shaded and cool and just perfect on these 90+-degree July days.

A couple of weeks ago, he installed screened doors—one on each end of the room, one turquoise and one purple—and added eyescrews and hooks to keep the doors closed while my toddler niece and her not-yet-crawling baby sister were visiting.

It was just a day or two after my sister and family departed that Jake, in a fit of terror born of fireworks and/or thunderstorms, busted through the lower screen on the purple door, making himself a doggie-door entrance into the porch where he likes to hide from those crazy booms.

A couple of days after that, the turquoise door started sagging, likely from being banged around by our two maniacs and Milly every single morning when they go tearing out the back door to chase/attack/show-who’s-boss whatever it is that’s waiting daily for them in the backyard at 5am.

Then, one morning this week I opened the back door at 5am, the dogs went tearing out, acting like they’d been waiting for days (seriously, it’s like a “release the hounds” scene on Game of Thrones), and I watched as the turquoise screen door swung open in one piece….and….stopped. It just stopped. Didn’t swing back closed.

So I went out for a closer look. Note Jake hanging in the doorway like, “What happened here? I had absolutely no part in this fiasco!”

Well…so much for that. Here’s the door’s current state of being:

As my Dad likes to say (turn on Duck Dynasty-worthy accent here): “Cain’t have nuthin’ nyce!”

And I’m looking forward to reporting back when we figure out how to dog-proof our back porch’s screened doors. Step 1: Install dog door in one of the half-walls so they can go in and out without using a screened door!