We use the side door bub. It's right next to the driveway. Path of least resistance. Front door is only for EMS and trick-or-treaters. No path needed, for that light workout the grass is fine. Ayuh

Interesting. Next time I’m up I’ll buy you an Allen’s.

Lost the key to my front door years ago. It's probably been a decade since I've opened it.

Winter. The front door usually opens into the living room or staircase, without a formal foyer. No where to put boots and jackets. The side or back door is usually where the mudroom is located, so a natural place to enter.

This answer cracked me up. I read it in the voice of a bunch of my relatives. These are pretty much the exact words they would use. Well done.

Best reply yet. I get it.

You know you can still walk to the door without a path right? I mean you can see the door from the driveway, do you really need directions?

My mom never had anything leading to the front steps, but she changed the house around a bit since us kids moved out, built a front porch and walkway. We used to use the side door (right next to the driveway, but she removed that and built a backdoor that leads onto a patio. (Which made way more sense because where the side door was, with stair and all, blocked a big chunk of her driveway anyways)

Nope, no directions needed but I understand it’s all about utility for many.

Go with the Moxie. Deliver it to the front door.

Who uses the front door? Come ‘round back, bud, we’re in the kitchen.

In Maine, sidewalks are only in a few places in a handful of cities. Our house lots are personalized. Most houses aren't built with mud rooms or foyers, so side doors and back doors are frequently used.

We come in through the garage into the kitchen. The only people who knock on the front door don’t know you.

Nah, stay with the side door where you’ll see it.

This. Saves a lot of shoveling too. And too hard to re-train to use a different door twice a year.

I remember when my parents moved to Maine in 1999 people telling us that nobody in Maine uses the front door, so this is definitely a thing.

And thinking back, never at any point in my childhood or adolescence in Maine do I remember anybody ever ringing our front door bell. Delivery people, political campaigners, friends, acquaintances, plumbers, tree guys, new neighbors introducing themselves — they all come to the side door.

And my parents actually do have a path to the front door from the driveway. They even shovel it, but that's because my dad (who's now lived in Maine nearly 25 years) considers it an emergency fire escape route.

What kind of horrible monster are you? The front door???

Seriously though, I forgot bottle drives. The kids always knock on the front door for bottle drives. What a pain. Gotta move a laz-z-boy, trip over the dog, get the draft stop and pull that sticky door open just to tell them to come 'round back. Like cmon kids, you know better.

If you're friend or family, ya come upta the house through the dooryahd. If you're not friend or family, go away.

It isn’t just Maine, either, but most small town and rural areas in New England. We never used the front door in my parents’ house in MA except to move furniture because it led directly into the living room and stairs and there was no place to hang coats/remove wet shoes. In my current house in Maine, we actually do use the front door as the main entry, and have a gravel path directly from the driveway but it still feels a little weird to me!

Dig around a little, there’s a path under there, it’s just grown over with grass. We ain’t used it for a while.

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It’s almost as if many front doors are decorative or not intended for receiving guests?

Bingo. I shovel a path to mine in case of fire or if anyone ever needs to get a gurney inside because I'm old and live alone. But I have a sign asking people to go to the kitchen door because I get all discombobulated if someone misinterprets the open path as some kind of invitation to knock at the front.

I grew up in the County where the front yard is the handiest place to push all the snow from the driveway if you live in town. Front door was always blocked for by a mountain of snow for 6 months a year.

We graded our driveway around to the back door to make it easier for visitors to find their way in and for unloading groceries.

I always know when it's the Jehova's Witnesses knocking, they're the only ones that go to the front door.

Front door is the trap. Anyone knocking the front door gets ignored.

Front door is for decor…use the side door to enter the home. My side door actually enters an entry way with a small bathroom, closet, and shoe closet. My front door enters my living room!

And the area outside the side or rear door is called the dooryard.

As a kid, I did not know better. Same with all the Boy Scout sales. Indeed, we were told to knock on the front door because folks were more likely to buy. Never understood why but maybe all that furniture moving...

I was always told that years ago Maine homes would be taxed an an unfinished rate if the front door steps were not completed. People just used their side doors. Perhaps years later, when the property tax laws were updated, this tax advantage no longer applied so they completed the steps but still never gave the front entry much use.

Now, I can not find any info to substantiate this on the web. Could be just local BS, but I've heard numerous people refer to this issue over the years.

Our front door let's cold into the living room. We have no path and dogs have made it all muddy.. side door through basement keeps boots and cold away.

It’s Maine, you enter into the mudroom for good reason

Most people only the use the back door, esp during the 11 months in winter

Mud season and snow season.

Yessah

I only shovel a path in the snow for the oil man. Side door is for all.

UPS left a package on our front door and we just assumed porch pirates for three days until glimpsing it by accident.

Personal favorite: Maine houses with front doors but no front steps🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Your answer has been basically answered with all the multiple reply's. one more I'll add is that the obvious for emergency, cause the local fire dept. actually requires a certain number of doors on a house for multiple exits. and technically not suppose to be blocked.

Mainers don’t seem to use the front doors. or try to impress people here, which is nice, but also why so many people are walking around in sweatpants at Mardens

My uncle opens his annually "to make sure it still works."

I think it's when he hangs his Xmas wreath.

My unheated, screened in porch is my mud room. I think this is common, too.

Because you are in Maine and cant get there from here lol

This thread helps to explain so much to my husband whom has never stepped foot in Maine. Unless you’ve lived there, you have no idea.

This is what my grandmother told me. I heard this from another person who was an older Maine resident. If the front door had no steps your land/prop tax was not as high. There are so many rural homes like this I have always felt that it may be true.

I feel like everyone answered the question correctly: the front doors are designed poorly for winter.

But that just raises another question: why the heck is there hundreds of years of building front doors wrong? Why not just make a front door coat room part of the plan?