Doors, Trim, and Hardware: Part 3

Over the last couple weeks, Tal has been replacing the brass door hardware (circa 2000) throughout our house:

It has been a time consuming and labor-intensive process. Last Saturday, Tal spent 9 hours taking down all 13 doors on our first floor and removing the brass hardware...

...spray painting the doors (2 coats on each side, with 15 minutes in-between each coat):

...painting the door casings:

... and hanging the doors and installing the new hardware.  By the end of the day, Tal was exhausted from all of the bending, squatting, and lifting. 

This is what our house looked like on Saturday after Tal took down all of the doors. Our house was a disaster as I tried to keep Hurricane Hadley from pulling food out the pantry, taking towels out of the linen closet, and putting her hands in the toilet.  :)



It's amazing how new hardware instantly makes our home feel more updated and upscale. Tal and I love our new levers (Kwikset's Tustin in Venetian Bronze), which are solid and well-made. When our hands are full or dirty, it is so easy to push down on the lever and open the door. We also love how our levers open and close quietly.

It cost us nearly $1,000 to install new hinges, strike plates, and levers on all 25 doors in our house. That's an average of $40 per door. However, Tal and I saved a couple hundred bucks by buying all of our hardware on Amazon instead of Home Depot.

Tal still needs to replace the hardware on our 3 exterior doors, as well as put the finishing touches on some doors (i.e. fix a couple sticky doors and install the ball catches and strike plates on the pantry doors and master bedroom parlor doors)...and then our hardware project will be done!