If the title of this post didn’t clue you in, we finally got around to replacing the old door to our guest bedroom this weekend.
Why were we replacing the door, you ask? Maybe this photo (from this post) will jog your memory:
(Bad dog!)
After Molly destroyed the door to our guest bedroom from the inside out, we did our best to hide the damage for a long, long time. Then, a few months ago we started sprucing up the guest room and, with every new project, the door became more and more of an eyesore. It finally got the ol’ heave-ho when I started painted the trim.
Since then, I’ve painted the door frame on the inside and outside of this room and given the paint plenty of time to cure. Once that was done, it was time for Mr. and Mrs. Heard to finally give our guests back their privacy.
We took a trip to Lowe’s and picked up three things:
- New Door (30″ x 80″): $30
- Doorknob Drilling Kit: $20
- Bed/Bath Locking Doorknob: $10
We also already had 3 silver hinges to match the new door knob. Originally we thought we’d just spray paint all of the door knobs in our house brushed nickel to save money. I actually had already painted the garage door knob here, but the paint job hasn’t held up as well as I would have liked.
After a bit of research we discovered that we could completely replace all the door knobs in our whole house for less than $100, so we went ahead and sprung for all new knobs (Gate*House brand from Lowe’s).
Since the door we bought was close to the right dimensions but wasn’t the perfect height and width already, Stephen started by trimming a bit off the sides. Then he routed out the spots in the side of the door for the three hinges.
We added the hinges to the door frame and then lined up the door to mark where the hinge screws should go in the side of the door. Stephen pre-drilled the holes for the screws and I held up the door while he put in one screw per hinge to test it out.
After a couple minor adjustments with the hinge placement, we installed the rest of the screws and set to work on the door knob.
The Door Lock Installation Kit we found included great instructions. Here’s how we set about prepping the door to install the door knob.
Step 1: Place the jig on the door and use the larger drill attachment to drill the hole for the door knob.
Step 2: Use the smaller drill attachment to drill the hole for the door latch.
Step 3: Use the router bit to route out the area where the latch will be attached.
Step 4: Chisel it out the rest of the way.
Step 5: Get ready to install your door knob!
Before installing the new door knob, I laid out all the pieces and took inventory. There was the door knob set, the latch piece, and the striker plate, along with the screws to attach them all to the door and frame.
The striker plate was easy to install since there had been one on this door frame previously.
We installed the latch second, using the screws provided.
Then we placed one knob on either side of the door and secured them together with the 2 longest screws.
After making sure the door would open and close, the latch would catch, and the lock worked, we declared this door installation project complete! Not a bad improvement for 60 bucks and an evening’s worth of work!
Now future guests (we have some coming this weekend) can close the door for privacy and our hallway is one step closer to being finished. All I have left to do is paint this baby white like the rest of our doors and we can mark this project off The Heardmont Punch List for good.
This project was quite involved and took a significant amount of time (about 3.5 hours) since we’re novices at things like this. There are definitely things we’d do differently and probably much better ways to install a door, but overall our installation experiment was a success!
I mean, really all you need from a door is for it to open and close smoothly and stay shut when you want it to, right? 🙂
What did you do this weekend?
