Can anyone help me? I have googled and googled in vain...

Preamble:

We live on the coast of Maine, and our winters are...challenging (eek!) Between the cold, the wind off the Atlantic and the snow...oy.

For several years we've struggled with our storm door on the north side of the house. We had to have it custom-made, and the wretched thing was a nightmare. It was constantly getting grabbed by the wind and ripping loose as it banged back against the house, despite the chain guard. We repaired it half a dozen times...and then the whole thing just disintegrated. Weirdly, the glass didn't break, but the frame just fractured apart and we found the glass ten feet from the porch!  Go figure!

Here's the question:

I often see old Capes around here that have a heavy wood door that's used instead of a storm door. It's almost like a wood shutter, but it's usually made from heavy planks with cross-members. No window, except sometimes just a little tiny decorative one near the top.

Has anyone seen any plans for something like this? To me, it makes a ton of sense just to build one of those, and latch it shut behind us every night when the sun goes down.

I really don't want to spend another $400+ for a fiberglass door that only last three winters, so if someone has any ideas for this type of alternative, I'd really appreciate the help.

We had a similar situation with wind pulling our storm door open. I ended up adding two dead bolt (barrel bolt?) sort of locking mechanism about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way up the door. I had them so you really had to pull the door shut before the bolts would fit in place. After that the door was never blown open. It was a pain to open and close every day, but held it shut.

In thinking about it now I wonder if a commercial door closer meant for a heavy door would hold it closed. They grab more towards the middle of the top of the door, a lot more expensive, but might be easier in the long run.