Annapolis Man Returns Home to a Maryland-Themed Surprise

Last 7 days, scrolling about Reddit, I encountered an picture of someone’s front door, painted to look like the Old Bay packaging. This wasn’t some 50 %-assed Previous Bay brand dabbed onto a little part of the door—no, it was the whole doorway, turned into a tin of Previous Bay. Like you’re strolling inside of an Aged Bay tin every time you enter the home.
The on the internet reaction was, if I’m becoming generous, blended. For illustration:

“That seems awful. I hope they fastened it.”

“That appears to be like absolute shit.”

“Great flavor, but terrible execution.”

“That’s very lousy, in my view. Whomever was inspired to do this would have benefited from some masking tape and some hand painted lettering apply. At the very least it’s a low-priced Property Depot doorway and not a little something historic. I’d be quite steamed if I came dwelling to this.”

I mean, have been the lines straight? No. Was the lettering a minimal drippy and fucked up? Positive. But I felt that Reddit wasn’t supplying this household credit score for ambition. They also weren’t asking some vital questions, these types of as, is this homeowner a hostage of the Outdated Bay foyer, submitting a plea for enable?

So I identified as the home-owner, Kevin Connors, who turns out to be a pretty awesome man from Annapolis. He’s a real Outdated Bay fanatic, not a shill for Big Seafood. Even though we spoke about his legendary door, he was prepping clam chowder. You will by no means guess what he seasoned it with.

Do you feel you could just fill me in on how the doorway happened?

Sure. Ok, so I didn’t even do it myself. I was in Nashville for a bachelor social gathering and came again on Sunday to an Previous Bay door.

All right.

The backstory is that I stay on a avenue with, like, four of my cousins. They all crafted their homes on the avenue and I bought a residence across the road, so we have a—we call it our small HOA. My door was purple just before, and at the HOA meetings that we have—which is very significantly we get jointly and have a drink—they came up with a rule that there are no purple doors allowed on the avenue. So we have been hoping to imagine of funny issues to paint it, and we went by way of a bunch of concepts and Previous Bay was a single of them. But I under no circumstances assumed it would essentially take place, and then I came household from Nashville.

What were the other doorway topic thoughts?

Effectively, Pink Floyd Darkish Aspect of the Moon. Random colors—teal was a single of them. The Wall was one of them, Pink Floyd The Wall. University of Maryland was a single of them, or doing a Nats “W.”

Okay, so you went to a bachelor social gathering and then you came house. What did you consider when you observed the door?

I just right away burst out laughing. It was an audible giggle, no doubt. I signify, I was in the auto by myself, weary from the bachelor social gathering. I parked, got out, and then I just stood in entrance of it for like, two minutes. My cousins actually live across the street from me and they’re just on their entrance porch, laughing their asses off at me. I was type of bewildered simply because I didn’t anticipate [the door], but I realized particularly who it was as before long as I saw it. My following reaction was to go around to my cousin’s home and be like, “What the hell? This is amusing.”

And what did your cousin say about it?

He was nevertheless kind of huffing and puffing since he experienced been attempting to get it carried out just before I obtained property. His wife called me when I was like 30 minutes out, I assumed she was just contacting to say, like, “Hey, what is up, when are you getting residence,” but she was looking at how a lot time he experienced left. Which is what they genuinely cared about.

 Yeah, how extensive did it consider to do it?

He stated it took several hours due to the fact he had so many layers of the yellow paint masking the purple. It does not glance like it took way too long to do the wording, for the reason that which is a small shoddy. But other than that everything’s rather fantastic. I definitely like the pink cap at the top, I don’t know if you noticed that.

I did, it’s terrific. So why Outdated Bay?

Oh, we’re a crabbing family members. My cousin bought a crabbing boat with a professional license two decades ago, and each and every summer it is just nonstop crabs. I probably have like 3 or four factors of Old Bay in my house suitable now. I grew up taking in it. We all grew up in Maryland, by the bay. We’re Chesapeake young ones. And we place it on every little thing. You know, it’s just that Maryland staple.

Do you primarily use it on crabs? Is there other stuff that you like to take in it with?

Crabs are clearly my go-to. In all probability my favorite factor to put it on is french fries with a tiny bit of vinegar. But I imply, you could place it on anything at all. I have four chickens. I make eggs every morning, I put it on the eggs.

 Hence the Beware of Chickens indicator following to your door?

 For this reason the indicator, yeah. Four chickens arrived with the household when we acquired it a couple of yrs back.

 Wow, I have never ever heard of that.

Yeah. I didn’t have to acquire them, I just knew they experienced chickens, and I was like, I form of want to see what this life’s about.

Do you like the rooster lifestyle?

I do like chicken existence, they are incredibly simple animals and they’re amusing to be around. Essentially, for most sporting events, like any championship, I’ll set up two bowls in our yard and print out each and every of the teams’ logos and set them on a bowl and see which bowl the hen goes to. And we’ll bet on them, based mostly on what the chickens say. They’re really excellent at it, they’ve received me some funds.

Unbelievable. So what have your neighbors stated about your doorway?

You know, I haven’t—I signify, besides my 4 neighbors that are my cousins and my friend, I haven’t heard something from my other neighbors. I do have a video clip camera that exhibits my front porch. And I’ve witnessed a couple of neighbors stroll by and just look at it and chuckle and maintain heading. But no one’s appear up to me and mentioned anything at all. My cousins did say that when they were being painting it, a couple persons walked by and thought they were doing the Ukrainian flag.

Did the firm achieve out at all?

No, the business has not reached out. I tagged them. I was variety of hoping that they would.

I’m curious how you felt when men and women on Reddit were being criticizing the door.

I texted my cousin stating that everyone’s roasting your artistic capabilities over listed here. I thought it was amusing. Like, I do not treatment. My a single cousin was like, “wow, these people today are perfectionists on in this article.”

Are you all preparing to contact it up?

Yeah, we are. We undoubtedly talked about that.

What’s the approach?

Effectively, painters tape will be a big one. My cousin said it took six layers of yellow to cover the, like, deep purple of the doorway that I had. So we’ll most likely do an additional layer of that yellow, for the reason that you can form of see the purple. You just cannot really see it in the picture, but you can even now variety of see the purple on there.

Seems like you men are going to do a full repaint.

Yeah, we’ll certainly paint in excess of. And you know, I liked that just one human being on the submit who claimed it looks fantastic devoid of the words. But I believe we’re heading to consider and continue to keep the words on there and just make it seem a small bit better. It appears to be a small odd. But like I said, it was a brief position. He pretty much finished two minutes right before I acquired household. Other than that, there’s a large amount more that we could add in, like [the Old Bay tin] has the crabs, the shrimp, and the hen. A crab would almost certainly be rather challenging to paint, but I have an artist neighbor who essentially could be capable to do it for us.

So if you are absolutely repainting it, it appears like you’re committing to dwelling with the Old Bay doorway.

 Yeah, certainly for now. I plan on dwelling below for a minor whilst, and I’ll just be that eccentric residence on the block, which is fun.

How does it truly feel to have these types of a loud door?

Perfectly, the doorway just before was quite loud—I’m telling you, that purple was really purple. But I believe it’s interesting. I like obtaining the loud doorway. I form of have a loud front porch anyway. I have that Beware of Chickens indication, I have a bunch of chicken things. And a Nats flag. I actually continue to have my Christmas lights up. And then a rocking chair. And my neighbor designed a wreath for me that I may set again up. I took it down. It has, like, a bunch of Maryland stuff, and Grateful Dead hippie stuff that I like. I may well place that again up, but probably not mainly because I imagine it usually takes absent from the place of the Aged Bay doorway.

 Sounds like you have really serious Maryland pride.

I do.

What do you like about Maryland?

So a lot. I adore remaining by the drinking water. I’m in Annapolis, it is a great bay city. My key issue I truly enjoy about Maryland is just—we’ve received a small little bit of anything. I indicate, the Maryland temperature will prove that.

Last issue. In your “HOA,” is it prevalent to come household and have your dwelling altered?

Yeah, we mess with every other just because we’re all on the exact same avenue and we’re all seriously near. Like one particular cousin place a water heater in my other cousin’s bed room even though she was gone. She was not joyful about it. She just bought home from vacation—you know, you’re tired. You form of just want to lay down and not do something. And she has this giant drinking water heater in the center of her room. She wasn’t as happy as I was about the door, I’ll say that.