In two weeks, my parents will move to Vermont from the town in Northern Virginia where I grew up, their home for 37 years.

More on that later; for today all you need to know is their new front door in Vermont needs work. Everyone – the real estate agent, the sellers, the contractors they consulted – agreed that the door should be repainted or replaced, and that the doorstep needs to be repaired.

My parents told me about the front door as they were listing all of the work to be done on their new Vermont house, which isn’t really “new” at all; it’s a 1928 beauty that requires the kind of upkeep you’d expect of an 86-year-0ld house. But when they mentioned the front door, I said, “Don’t worry too much about that; nobody’s going to be coming through your front door, anyway.”

Click here to find out why in my latest “Faith in Vermont” column for The Addison Independent.