The Knob’s The Thing.

When you move into a new home, there’s always that_one_thing that drives you a little batty. (Ok, full disclosure there was more than one_thing at The Duckling that made us batty). But for me, the sticky door knob on the sun-porch door was my thing. Most days it would function just fine. Then, there would be that day when I would have the trifecta of complications going on and the knob would stick. Inevitably, it was raining, I was carrying a bunch of stuff out of the car, trying to hustle my favorite three year-old inside so he could make it to the potty in time and that &^*($ door knob would stick!

The knob’s last straw was on a day as described above and I lost my mind. (Instant Replay: “That’s it! I’ve had it! The_knob_goes!”)

U-G-L-Y

So what’s a frustrated momma to do? Well, first I call my Dad. You see, like a good father does, he gave me enough DIY skill to handle the small things, and enough blind self-confidence to think that I could tackle something like installing and re-keying my own door knob. It’s that blind self-confidence which usually gets me into trouble. Dad was coming over later that day and said – “we’ll figure it out, but maybe Home Depot or your local hardware store could re-key it for you!”

Um, noooo…….

Since patience is not my virtue, what do I do? Take things into my own hands of course! Off to our locally-owned hardware store I go to explore my options and to most certainly NOT ask them to re-key the lock for me. I can figure this out on my own! I see lots of knobs – interior, exterior, combo knob and deadbolt, etc. My eyes land on the Kwikset exterior knob that has a self re-key option called Smart Key. SCORE! (I mean, really….when the knob gods hand you a gift, you accept it gratefully!).

Hello, love!

So I bring the winner home and promptly get to work swapping out the knob. It took all of 10 seconds to unscrew and remove the old knob and strike plate (oh yeah, I sound like I know of what I speak, do I not?)

Bu-bye!

Then I read the directions for the new knob. I tackled the easy parts first – screwing in the new strike plate was a piece of cake because it literally fit perfectly in the slot for the old strike plate.

So shiny!

Then I had to measure “the basket” – essentially from the center of the hole in the door to the outside edge – to see how long the latch needed to be. At 2 3/4 inches, it meant adjusting the chamber – easy-peasy with the flip of a spring pin. Then I put that into it’s slot and that step was done!

Fits like a glove!

Now it was time to get down to the real business. The way this lock was designed, it was literally fool-proof so long as you followed directions. You put stemmed knob (aka, the side where the key would go) through the latch slots. And then lined the non-stemmed knob (aka, the side of the knob that would go on the inside of the door) up with the stemmed part, twisted it down over the screws, tightened the screws and voila!

Hello, gorgeous!

A couple of double checks that the door was opening and closing ok and it was time to re-key the knob. The lockset came with this little pin thing that you use to change the lock set to the key you want to use rather than the one that came with the lock. Since we’d spent a good chunk o’ change re-keying the whole house after we moved in, I figured best to spend a little more and buy the lockset that I could easily re-key myself.

So the situation is this – you put the key that came with the lockset into the lock and turn it to the right 90 degrees. You put the pin into the tiny slot and remove the original key still in the 90 degree position. You then put your key of choice into the lock at the 90 degree position, turn it upright and then turn it back to the 90 degree position. If at that point you try to pull the key out and it won’t remove, you’ve succeeded in your re-keying efforts. If it comes out, then it didn’t work and you have to start over with the instructions provided.

Luckily my re-keying attempt was a success the first time out of the gate – so no need to worry about Plan B. And she’s a beauty and functions perfectly! No sticking, and actually I think the door as a whole functions better.

Perfect!

And bonus? When my Dad walked into the house a couple hours later, I was all, “no need to worry about that knob, Dad – your girl’s got some mad DIY skills and I handled it all on my own!” He was stunned and a tad impressed, if I do say so myself!

The two downsides to my shiny new knob? 1) Now I need to repaint the door and the trim – it’s looking rough next to that shiny new knob and it’s time to make it all look as good as that knob! And 2) now my husband has officially nominated me “in charge of all knob replacements going forward.” Umm…..yay?

The moral of the story? The knob’s the thing…..that can open a whole can of worms! Because as we know, painting the door will lead to painting the whole room.

It’s a slippery slope when you start with a knob!

Doors, doors. Everywhere doors.

Every house has it quirks – something you scratch your head about and wonder “what were they thinking!?” The Duckling has many, many quirks, but one of the most obvious is the doors. First of all, there are way more doors in this house than are needed. Like in the kitchen, where, before we started tinkering, there were five doors. FIVE! There were two doors that led to other rooms, a door that led to the basement, a door that led outside and a door to the pantry closet. That’s about two doors too many. So we promptly got to work taking down the two doors that led to other rooms.

The first was the swinging door that kept the dining room separate from the kitchen. While I get how in the 1950’s there was an interest in closing the kitchen off from the house, in this century we’ve come to recognize that an open flow is much better. We’ve also come to realize that a saloon-style aesthetic isn’t really where’s it’s at. So, without hesitation, off with her hinge! But how do you take a swinging door off its pin and hinge? That is a very good question, to which I found the answer here. In a few easy steps she was gone – much better, don’t you think?

There’s that saloon door!

No more saloon – much better!

Next it was the door that closed the kitchen off from the entry hallway. Again, I think the designers of the 1950’s were thinking that no one should enter a home and have the kitchen be the first thing they see. But again, in this century, we take a lot of pride in our kitchens, particularly if they’ve been upgraded and are show quality. We love The Duckling’s kitchen, so we have no shame in having it seen when you walk in the front door. And for that matter, the door was always standing open anyway, so there was really no need for it to be there. So off she goes!

What we saw every time we walked from the bedrooms to the living areas of the house.

Always open for business.

Closing the door made the hallway feel like a tomb.

Door gone = a wall now available for art!

No more tomb. Let there be light!

Aaah, much better! Now that our kitchen was freed from the chains of too many doors, we focused on the door at the top of the stairs. Again, probably there for functionality – either for heating and cooling purposes or for shutting off the noise from the first floor if someone was trying to sleep on the second floor. But since we weren’t worried about either of these issues, and the door was always standing open, it seemed logical to eliminate the door that literally created a Bermuda Triangle of doors! In this small hallway at the top of the landing were again 5 doors – two to bedrooms, one to the stairs, one to the bathroom and one to the hall closet – so taking off the stair door was quickly a priority. And what a difference!

Not exactly welcoming.

Hello Bermuda Triangle!

That’s one happy, handy hubby!

Bermuda Triangle no more!

Come on up!

Although these doors may seem pretty small in terms of a project, they have dramatically improved the spaces. I feel like I could dance Swan Lake around the upstairs hallway now!

The last quirk about the doors in this house is that they don’t all match. Some are the 1950’s two panel original doors, others were new six panel unpainted solid wood, and still others are flat panel hollow core doors. Eventually we will be looking to find the mates to the original two panel doors so we can keep the original character of the home in tact.

Until then, we will live with what we’ve got and be thankful that at least the doors we wanted to keep in place are fully functioning!