"You make a better door than a window"

My mother used this phrase anytime I blocked the view of the television. I understand the intent.
However, the word order is odd. After she passed away, I set about to find the source of her
favorite phrase, to no avail. I travel about the USA as a trainer, and use it as an 'ice-breaker' many
weeks. The phrase is fairly well known, but with no particular regional correlation. I suspected it to
be a 'literal translation' from her native Polish-language childhood, or possibly a chatch-phrase
from a depression era radio show (the history of her other favorite saying, 'now you're cooking with
gas', was explained to me by an older neighbor once).

Google has a few pages with some informal research similar to my own, but nothing definitive.
I have no reference library to draw upon, and would appreciate the help of the many wise and
experienced word-smiths on this site.

PS: If you find it on a website, I will add that link to my home page.

...thx. Dave @travelin-tigers

From Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day:

"'you make a better door than a window.' Addressed to a person obstructing the light: US (Lester V. Berrey and Melvin Van Den Bark, "The American Thesaurus of Slang," 1942) and New Zealand (Sidney J. Baker, "New Zealand Slang," 1941), both since c. 1920 at latest. Cf. 'is your father a glazier?'
John B. Smith, 1979, recalls an English version: 'you make a very good door, but a very bad window.' Prof. John W. Clark, 1977, doubts that the phrase was ever very much used in US."

Comments: Prof. Clark was wrongedy-wrong-wrong. Nothing in Partridge's account suggests a Polish origin. I don't find the word order so odd. Compare "Gluten flour makes better bread than cake."

I heard the phrase used in Ireland more than 60 years ago so I guess it was at least well known in the 1940s. I've no idea if Ireland was the birthplace - judging by the idiom it might well have been.