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.

Guest blog post: Installing hardwood floors!

Guest blogger Steve shows off the amazing transformation in his house!

Finally!  It took a couple of years to get to it (very un-breaking nails-like), but I finally got the hardwood floors installed on the main level of my house in September.  The new floor is a huge upgrade from what I had before.  I bought the house with carpet so I had no idea what I was getting into when I removed the carpet.  Water damage on the main level with just a hint of termite damage to go with it.  Exciting, right?  Well after living with it long enough, I took some time off from the job to work on the floor.  Is there a better way to spend a stay-cation?  After two weeks of work (and a couple of weekends afterwards), I got the job done.  What an improvement!  But I can’t rest, there’s still the upstairs to do so that promises even more fun.

Improve on, breaking nailers!

Deck Party Success!

I got my final building permit approval the day before my deck party/cookout. I finally have space to host a lot of people. I wanted to celebrate the many people who have helped me with house projects, those who have been supportive of the process, those who lend me tools, my birthday, and the milestone of building a deck. We had lots of food, including tons of cookies! I may have been on a baking frenzy. I had some self-rising flour I needed to use (or it wouldn't be self rising any longer) so I made some sugar cookies and it just spiraled from there... milk chocolate chip, toffee & milk chocolate chip, zucchini with craisins & coconut & chocolate chip. At least 60 people came throughout the day and all (adults, kids, and dogs) seemed to be having a good time! This cutie even got to use scrap wood as building blocks.

My shade tree... a little less shady

I had planned to do a blog post devoted to the big tree in my backyard because the shade it provided while building the deck was crucial {+1}! Those same shady leaves weighed down the branch that fell on my deck on Saturday before last{-1}. But the limbs prevented the big branch from doing any damage to the deck {+1}. My mom and I had to spend that Sunday morning after early church cutting the branch apart {-1}. I got to use a chainsaw {+1}. [And +1 to Whitney for letting me borrow her electric chainsaw!]

Still in the positives! It could have been a lot worse.

Deck Done!

The deck is completely built and passed inspection!

Everything else to be done to the deck is protective or cosmetic (no fears... I'll blog about that too).

Mother Nature initiates my deck

I planned to add the finishing touches to my deck tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be in the low 80s and sunny. A storm blew through while I was gone today and decided to initiate my deck to living under a big tree. I guess I'll be spending most of tomorrow taking care of this branch instead. My neighbors were kind enough to send me pictures of the branch before I returned in the evening so I wasn't shocked when getting home.

On the bright side, this was the branch that was mostly over my house, so my gutters won't get as clogged this fall.