Hello, friends! I came back. I don’t see how people* can both work on a house and blog about working on a house.
* Normal full-time-job people, that is, who don’t get paid to blog. I just spent $99 to renew my WordPress.com Premium account, which includes the No Ads upgrade. That keeps WordPress from placing any ads on this site, and obviously I myself am not profiting in anyway. No Blue Apron sponsored posts here! I like that this space is commercial-free, and it’s one of the things that makes me want to continue blogging.
Also, I am making a ton of progress on the house, in ways big and small, and I want this blog to be a record of that.
I’m going to try to be better about quick posts: the types of things I text my friends when they humor me about being interested in Phase 7 of my elaborate 10-phase never-ending basement demo. I know I need to finish the house tour with a post about the exterior of the house, but I want to start with some small changes I made to our front stoop.
Here’s the door that greeted us the first time we toured the house:
I bought new deadbolts for the three exterior doors, keyed them to match one key, and installed them the day we closed on the house. When we moved in several weeks later, that was the only change I had made:
Scrubbing and painting made a huge difference.
The cats were super curious about why the door was cracked.
Doozy’s curiosity borders on murdery.
Working on a house requires constant decision-making and I can get overwhelmed by options, but that wasn’t the case with our doorknobs and mailbox. I ordered these immediately and love them!
The mailbox is the 4600 Series Black Standard Vertical Traditional Mailbox from Salsbury Industries. I would have preferred the horizontal version (easier to fish things out of because it’s less deep) but the vertical one fits better in the space available. It’s awesomely sturdy.
I swapped out all of the knobs and levers in our house with these Bowery knobs by Shlage, in the matte black finish. They feel great in your hand.
I have the Privacy Lock Knob (#F10 BWE 622) on our bedroom and bathroom doors, and the Passage Lock Knob (#F40 BWE 622) on our closet and interior passage doors.
Pro tip: despite the name, the “passage lock knob” does not lock.
Eventually we’ll get a new front door and, at that time, I’ll buy a really nice lever, but door hardware is expensive and I’m very happy with this set-up for now.
I also hung a Mr. Beams battery-operated motion sensing light in the overhang (model MB980). It detects motion from about 10 ft away and illuminates the front porch.
My only complaint is that the LED light has a sharp halo, which looks a bit harsh. (And I need to move it two feet to the right so more of the light is on the door knob.) I prefer to turn on the real front porch light when we’re expecting company, but this one is nice for us when we come home late.
That’s it for now! I’ll have the Before and After pictures see you out.
Before:
After:
Project Palermo 
I really like the new knobs, very odd shape. I can’t wait until we are finally in a place where we can start house hunting again.
Ooooo that mailbox is niiiiiiiice! Covet.
Very nice changes on the doorway. I would not have thought of black hardware but it looks really nice.
Awesome. I kind of hate our front door knob, which was just whatever the locksmith had on hand on the right brand when he tried to re-key the original 1963 knob and couldn’t because the inner workings were . . . PLASTIC.
I absolutely love your blog ever since I found it a few years ago! You so remind of of me when I started with my first house…even if things go wrong you learn from them and the next project is even better!! I know how hard it can be to juggle job, family and trying to write about projects you are doing to your beautiful home, BUT PLEASE DON’T EVER STOP!!!! YOU ROCK GIRL😎😎😎😎
You know so many things about so many things!! The knobs are beautiful- one of my favorite parts so far.