Under lock and key

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a safe and happy start to the year. We have been having a good year start. We had a lovely New Years Eve. We had a fancy dinner and spent a nice night in. It was honestly perfect. We usually are out until all hours of the night NYE, so it was nice to just be home and enjoy being together. I haven't been quite as productive as usual with projects. I have actually been enjoying (rather than updating) the house more recently. You can guarantee that will change as I always have lots of ideas for how to change things up. Like today for instance. After church, J and I swung by Home Depot. Friends of the family had gotten us a gift certificate, so we naturally spent about 4 times the worth on the card. :) What I actually meant to buy (and did) was a kreg jig for woodworking projects. It allows you to make pocket holes (as I had to explain to the employee in the tools department). But, that's not what today's post is about. We also picked up some door knobs. I have been meaning to do this for ages, and finally got around to it. We got one for the half bath on the main floor (which desperately needed it) and the front door (which also was looking in bad shape).

Here are the half bath before shots. Pretty 80s huh? Also, it was not going well with all the updates in the powder room.

We chose Oil Rubbed Bronze for the updated look. J was pretty excited that it was the finish I wanted, too. I basically followed instructions. Actually, I used spackle to fill in gaps from previous knobs, like the one below (after picture to follow).

And this one where I squeezed in some spackle before screwing it in to fill out the non-square edges.

The front door "before". We have always hated this lock since you have to use a key on both the inside and out. So, we got a new one that has a lever (not sure the right word - the thing you turn to lock it) on one side and keyed entry on the other. After doing some research, I am fairly certain that this lock was original to the house, so it's probably good that we are updating it. (And yes mom, we will give you a new key to the house.)

Again, I had to make some corrections with spackle. I know this looks rough, but after painting it and installing the hardware, it looks really good.

The after pictures.

See how much better spackle + paint makes this look?

And now that the knobs are switched out, I can officially call our powder room completed!

And here's another picture of the light for good measure.

I am not sure I can really impart any real wisdom with switching out knobs, except to follow instructions and be patient. It was kind of interesting for me to look at the locking mechanisms. I had never really thought about it much before. Also, there are a wide variety of front door handles. We went for something modern but simple. I also am updating the door knocker to match, but I will get to that later (like when I am done) and will take a bigger picture of the front door. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!