My wife and I bought a house a few years ago after searching for one for months. Once the home was finally ours, we were thrilled to start making it the home we would raise our kids in. After our daughter was born, we made some upgrades so the house would be a better space for her to grow up in.
Recently, we transitioned her from her crib to a bed. Since she’s now able to get out of bed, there’s the possibility of her wandering around in the middle of the night. But as we were getting ready to set up her new bed, we realized there was something about her room we’d overlooked when we bought the house.
Her doorknob had a lock on it that we didn’t have a key for. And as it turns out, this started a search through the house for the key.
Take stock of all the keys you have
This goes for all kinds of locks
This is probably on us for not realizing that the doorknobs were slightly different during the initial walkthrough, or even during the time we’ve lived in the house since then. It was one of those points that slipped by during the initial years of homeownership.
We’d never really locked the doors inside our house before. But now that my daughter can lock the door herself, it’s important to have a key to unlock it.
As we walked around our house, we realized that many of the doorknobs looked similar: they were gold and rounded. But almost none of them were the same. I went through the box of manuals and information that the previous owner had left us. However, I couldn’t find the keys to the doorknobs. They weren’t with the keys to the shed either, which I have used many times.
If the doorknobs had been the same, I likely could have figured out a way to get a single key to open them, assuming they were privacy doorknobs like a few of the ones we have. Those are ones with a push lock on one side, featuring a small keyhole that can be unlocked with a universal key on the other side.
Obviously, I could have found a lock-picking kit that would potentially unlock the doors when needed. But I didn’t want to force myself to learn a new skill just to unlock the doors in my house.
What we decided to do
It was time for an upgrade anyway
Because all the doors in the house had different locks and different doorknobs, I ruled out finding a matching key for each of them. That seemed like a colossal pain, and while it may have been more cost-effective than what we decided, it would have later meant trying to remember which key was for which door.
Many of the doorknobs were a bit loose from extended use over the years, so they needed to be tightened anyway. But rather than tighten them, we decided to replace all the doorknobs. While this wasn’t a smart home upgrade, it was a basic necessity. Having different styles of doorknobs, even though they were similar in style, became unappealing when we weren’t able to lock them.
While this might not have been the choice everyone would have made, we felt the doorknobs needed an upgrade anyway. The ones we had felt a bit dated. So we went around looking for new doorknobs that would look good in our house.
Changing doorknobs wasn’t hard, but it was a chore
It took a bit of time to do many of them
I measured the door thickness, backset, and the large hole diameter of the doorknobs to know what size to order. I didn’t want to order a doorknob size that wouldn’t fit in the holes we already had. This eliminated any potential extra work, like recutting holes.
We ordered 12 Kwikset doorknobs to completely overhaul the doors. After unboxing them and getting ready to install, I first had to take out the previous doorknobs. That process involved unscrewing the previous doorknob, which featured screws, long bolts, and knobs that made it up.
I left my garage door open overnight—here’s how I automated it to never happen again
I left my garage door opener overnight and setup this automation to close it automatically everyday.
Taking off a dozen doorknobs wasn’t the worst task I’ve had to do in making upgrades to my home. But it still took some time. I planned to do this over the span of a weekend, so I could space out the work and the many other activities we had to do. I first took off the doorknobs, using a Phillips head screwdriver. I didn’t think it made sense to use an electric screwdriver, as it wasn’t difficult to use a manual one.
Once I took off the original doorknobs, it was fun to line them all up and see how they were different. Installing the new ones, which have long, matte black handles, took about as long as the previous ones did to remove. Lining them up with the previous holes and making sure they fit was easy.
Now that they’re up, it’s given the house, especially the bedrooms and upstairs hallway, a more modern look. Plus, we have keys for all the doors now and keep them in a safe place, so we don’t lose them.
It’s important to take stock of your door keys
Needing different keys for each of the bedroom doors in our house was a problem, since we didn’t have those keys. Opting for a whole suite of new doorknobs wasn’t a cheap option, but it was worth it. Changing them out wasn’t difficult, since I got ones of the same size.
If you haven’t thought much about your doorknobs lately, I’d recommend you take a look at them. You might find it worthwhile to swap them out like we did.
