What's Behind Door #1?During the renovation of our storefront in the East Village, we managed to back into a vulnerable situation that required us to have a custom door created for our bathroom.  After two months without any privacy (literally no bathroom door), I finally made it a priority to track down a doormaker.  Mr. Doormaker's assistant was friendly enough in email exchanges ... then we arrived at his loft office near Macy's on 34th and shared our budget.  Wait, let's back up.  When we walked into the loft, Mr. Doormaker mistook my companion for my bodyguard.  That's right, Mr. Doormaker lived and worked in such a privileged world that his clients had bodyguards.  Anyway, the numbers were so far off (his forged iron doors started at $10K and we needed one zero knocked off that number) that the meeting lasted all of ten minutes.  What did I learn from this?  It proved (once again) that someone can make a (really good) living in this city in endless ways.  Trust yourself, make a name for yourself and doors will open up to all kinds of possibility.

ps. I bounced back from the meeting and ended up tracking down an antiqued door that looked something like this.  Much, much cooler than iron.