roombyroom : just open a door

Sometimes easier said than done.  In our house anyway.

I knew several months ago that we would replacing the doorknobs in our house.  They were just plain ugly.  Mismatched, scratched, painted, missing screws.  It was not a pretty sight... but a project that I wasn't planning on anytime soon because I would rather put the money toward things like throw pillows or patio furniture right now.  

This is a little of what I was dealing with:

Did I mention that the guest bathroom didn't lock?

Yeah... maybe it should have been more of a priority.

So then... before Myles was born, I went to get a towel out of the linen closet in the master bathroom.  And the door wouldn't open.  The handle just broke.  For some reason, it had a locking knob... the locking button thing just spun in place.  My brother was in town and with a butter knife and a lot of luck, he managed to get it open... so we took the handle off.  And it stayed off until January.  When I replaced all of the knobs in the house.  

With this.  The Kwikset Cove in Venetian Bronze.  I only found them on Home Depot's website...not in store.  We did not like the bronze options in the store that were in our price range but these were perfect for $12-15 per knob depending on if it locked or not.

so much better right?!

So now our hallway (and other doors in the house) have a change that we just love.  And I'm sure what few guests we get, now appreciate.

The only knob that we didn't replace was the one leading to our carport.  Those are a lot more expensive... and not in the budget.  Oh how I wish I had just dealt with them all at once!

Because one day, we tried to go out that door to go to church.  Remember the linen closet fiasco?  Yeah.  It happened again.  Only this time to a very important door.  We couldn't get out.  So we had to use the front door.  When we got home, we tried the butter knife.  No luck.  I took the doorknob apart.  Should have worked, but the inside locking mechanism WOULD NOT disengage.  

This little bugger was all that stood between us and our normal way out.  So we did the only thing we could do.  Kyle beat the door down.  He pulled the pins out of the hinges and I braced it from falling on the ground while Kyle rammed into it.  

After that, I just had to run to the store again, spend $60 on a new Kwikset Smartkey knob/deadbolt combo.  It was amazingly easy to set the lock to our existing key, and now we can smoothly open the door with our beautiful new bronze knob.  

I did most of this over a few days during Myles' naps... or let him cry for a little bit in the case of the last one... we needed a lock.  Not a project to be intimidated by, and well worth the cost... even if it means waiting to buy the last of my throw pillows or to finish working on the hallway.