I Need Your Thoughts: Is Paint the Answer?

Monday you saw the refreshed hallway and now I need your help with a decision I've been waffling about.  I don't love our exterior door.  I thought paint might help, but I found a photo of a similar door, side by side with a more modern door (both painted the same cheery colour), and I'm still feeling a little meh about it:

via

As a reminder, here's our actual door:

If money were no object I'd replace the door with a Crestview door, to imbue our 1990s bungalow with the mid-century inspired simplicity I'm inching toward.

Door 1, 2, 3

We're thinking of eventually turning the carport (behind the door) into an enclosed garage, so our main entrance might, quite literally, not see the light of day.  In that case, a cheap, simple option would be great.  I found a plain slab door that rings in at about $300 (we need two).  But the window-less door will certainly darken the hallway, and our garage plans might never come to fruition anyway. 

There's another window-less version that's really popular at the hardware store and it's much cheaper.  The ABM studio recently got one and they painted it turquoise (I'm drooling over here).  I love the colour, obviously, but the differently sized panels totally make me twitch.  Why can't they be the same size?!?  I literally see someone buying one of these doors every time I venture out for reno supplies.  I could probably even snag one in the classifieds for even less. 

A Beautiful Mess

In our city, I have yet to find a plain door with a window.  It's an elusive combo.  All I can find are doors that are incredibly ornate or traditional looking - even the plain slab I finally tracked down is a special order.

The miserly part of me says "just paint the door you have!" while the optimist says "don't waste time and money on a temporary fix - hold out for the one"!  You know my style and my vision for the lakehouse, so what do my lovely readers say?

EDIT: Wow, thanks so much for answering the survey I originally had embedded here.  So many responses!!  I appreciate you taking the time to weigh in.  These were the results:

Paint our existing door = 75.53%
Buy and paint the cheap paneled door = 2.13%
Buy and paint a plain slab door = 2.13% (what are the odds?)
Keep questing = 20.21%

I think that, for now, I'm going to go with the majority and paint our existing door.  We have no shortage of projects to tackle this summer - some of them quite pricey - so our budget will appreciate an inexpensive solution.  But like so many suggested, I'll keep my eye out for "the one," or maybe next year we can build a custom door like some readers proposed - I think we're up for the challenge!  Thanks so much for all of your feedback!!