From brass to satin nickel hardware!

My fabulous friend Kelli has done another guest blog post! She'll also be featured in my next post. Feel free to share congratulations with her for these improvements in the comments.

When I purchased my house almost two years ago, the previous owners had upgraded some great things in the house - I had new stainless steel appliances, shiny and satin nickel light fixtures, and new sink faucets which were a shiny nickel. However, these didn't match the brass hardware on the door knobs, locks (exterior doors), and door hinges. To be honest, it didn't bother me that it was mismatched - as long as it worked, that was all I really cared about. I definitely liked the newer silver stuff and put it in my long term plan to update the hardware.


In September, I was hanging out with a co-worker of mine who was in the process of selling her house (about a mile from mine!) and she showed me how easy it was to update the hardware. She also had brass hardware in her house when she bought it, and she was putting the money in now in the hopes that the house would sell faster. She also put in bamboo floors in the kitchen and living areas and new appliances in the kitchen, which is very similar to what my previous owners had done.
I was really impressed with how easy it looked to update the hardware, and she told me she had spent about $500 for her whole house, which was a little smaller than mine. I figured if she can do it, so can I! I got a coupon in the mail that week for discounts on total purchases at Lowe's (which I can walk to from my house) so I figured I might as well take a crack at changing out the hardware. I thought the door hinges would be hard to do because I would have to take off the door and re hang it, but I didn't! My coworker showed me how to switch out each one, and how to remove the pins when she needed to put a door stop at the top (see picture on right). She was using a battery operated screwdriver to do all the hard work. I only have a corded drill, which is quite a bit heavier than the screwdriver. Unlike my coworker, I opted to get slight fancier handles for the doors in my house (see picture below). I did this for two reasons - one, I wanted to enjoy them and I liked them better, and two, they are more accessible for people who have arthritis or have a hard time gripping a handle. I figured anything I can do to make my home more accessible is a good thing!

This is a bathroom/bedroom handle with lock 

I took about 5 trips to Lowe's over a month to get the interior handles and doors done. I took notes about what I had so far (and did some measuring) and added up how many doors I have! I bought just enough supplies to do a few doors at first to make sure I liked the style and could really do it. I switched out two closet doors on my first floor, and ended up installing one of the handles backwards (I fixed it later once I figured this out!). I also bought all the hinges in bulk because I got a lower price (contractor's price) per unit. What's odd is that Lowe's and Home Depot both sell packs of three door hinges, but it was more expensive than buying the individual hinges without the contractor's price, so be sure to do some price comparisons! I also looked online but found my nearby Lowe's to have a competitive price.

strike plate

The handles didn't come with many instructions so it was a bit of trial and error. It took me until the third door for me to realize that the allen wrench which came with each new knob was for removing the handle and switch it around if needed, since not all door handles face the same direction. The hardest ones were the static handles because I had to re-drill the holes where these handles went into my pantry doors and one bedroom closet. Otherwise, the door handles were very easy once I got the hang of it! Not only did I have to replace 3 hinges on each door and the handle itself, I also had to replace the piece in the door frame (aka strike plate).  I put in three different types of handles - ones for the bedroom/bath which have a lock on them, for the closets which do not have a lock on them, and static ones which do not need to turn. I still haven't replaced the exterior door locks because they are a little pricier and involve having to switch out the key cores or re-coring them - I'm not sure yet! Maybe a future blog post!

Brass exterior door handle and bolt to be replaced

Fall Haul

My garden did really well this year. At the end of the normal growing season I had a lot of green tomatoes that I turned into a soup, more eggplant than I know what to do with, and my first attempt at growing sunchokes. Those sunchokes all came from one plant! They're a really cool tuber with a nutty flavor. You can turn them into chips. Or put in a soup.

The eggplant were just the final haul. I had been pulling 2 or 3 off of the plants each week for quite a while now. Next year I will plant more winter squash and perhaps more sweet potatoes.