update 1 -- door knobs

Friday after work, Kurt and I decided to go run errands and buy some of the items on our *extremely* long list. We thought this would allow us to be at home and get work done all day Saturday. We decided that one of the first things we wanted to do was change the locks on our doors. Instead of simply re-keying the locks already here, we decided to go ahead and upgrade the 3 main {front, back, and garage} doors. We knew that we eventually wanted brushed nickel door knobs throughout the house, but knew we wouldn't be able to afford to do all of them at one time.

After spending over 2 hours at Lowe's, we finally left only purchasing our door knobs and a trash can. We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to get started....   

Here's the motivation for changing the door knobs sooner than later:

I know not many people would notice and/or care that there is a brushed nickle switch plate next to the brass door knobs, but every time I saw it, I cringed a little. 

Here's the before and after from the back door {the garage is basically the same}:

 It's hard to tell that they were brass...

 

We started to get worried that we were going to need to do some touch-up painting. We sure didn't plan on that! {Good thing we didn't need to do that!}

Don't you love them?!?

They even have an extra pin for added security.

Here's the inside

{we love the shape of the lock and the detail}

Onto door number two. The process wasn't as easy. We learned our first 'door knob' lesson -- figure out what you'll need to exactly do BEFORE taking off the door knobs! We were so excited to see the new front door, we didn't even realize we'd need to drill a hole. {We upgraded to a handle rather than just having a knob.} So, after taking both knobs off and putting the deadbolt on, we had to put the old knob back on until Kurt's dad got here with his drill.

Lovely, huh? Good thing this wasn't for too long!

After his dad helped out, we had ourselves a beautiful new front door! Check it out:

We think it looks great next to the house colors. We hope you do, too!

We love our new door knobs so much, we wish we could afford to buy ones for all the doors in the house. But, no way that will be happening anytime soon...and that's okay! Our friend Meredith asked if we could spray paint the other door knobs to make them look like brushed nickel. I'm afraid that the locks and maybe knobs wouldn't turn. If anyone knows if this is at all possible, we'd love to hear!