The Hicks | Hicks House

The 1980’s called and they want their door knobs back. One of the quickest and easiest changes we’ve made to update our house is the door hardware. The house came with cheap builder grade brass door hardware.

I honestly don’t understand why they even still make hardware in this horrendous color, I’m pretty sure that no one besides the builders buys it anymore. After replacing all of the hardware in the condo we were bummed to be looking at polished brass again.

This time around we wavered on what exactly to replace them with. Should we stick with traditional knobs, or switch to lever handles? Buy new, spray paint the ones we already had? What color – brushed nickel or oil rubbed bronze? The endless decisions put this project on hold for a bit as we wavered back and forth with what we wanted. I’ve seen a lot of oil rubbed bronze across the blogosphere but also seen painted black doors which I love. Although we’re still unsure if we would want to ever paint our doors black, oil rubbed bronze hardware would rule it out – too much black.

We eventually settled on lever handles in brushed nickel. They would match the rest of the hardware throughout the house while still being “different”

Changing it out only took Ken about 15 minutes per door. First he unscrewed the hinges one at a time.

Then replace with a new hinge one at a time so you never have to actually take the door down and it should still line up properly with the routered out hinge holes.

We also added these little “stops” to the top hinge on the doors that would come close to hitting a wall.

We found these hinge packs at home depot, that were WAY cheaper than individually buying hinges however the brushed nickel seemed to be constantly out of stock. Another delay.

The next step was to remove the door knob. The inside piece gets screwed into the slot in the side of the door first.

Then screw in the new handle.

And lastly screw in the catch on the door frame.

Ta Da! All done!

Doesn’t it look pretty? It’s so fresh and more modern, and less shinny

And for comparison sake here is a side by side. It’s so much less reflective and eye blinding.

So what do you think? Do you like it better? Would you have gone for the lever handle or stuck with a traditional knob?

Way back when we first had our offer on the house accepted we were confronted with the conundrum of where Chloe would sleep. In the condo we simply put up baby gates locking her in the kitchen at night and when we were out. Her bed was there all the time and she would often choose to sleep there even when we were home.

With the much more open floor plan of the house baby gates were no longer an option so we bought a nice much bigger than she needed crate. Despite introducing the crate while still living in the condo where she was comfortable and moving her bed in there. She was still less than thrilled…

So we reinforced the crate to prevent future chewing and bought her a very ~~expensive~~ nice memory foam bed to make it more comfortable.

All was well with the world for about six months. Then the night time crying began. At first it was only for 5 to 10 minutes when she first went to bed then she would calm down and go to sleep. No big deal I’m brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed then anyway.

Then the real rebellion happened.

The memory foam bed died. As “parents” we’re growing increasingly concerned about this rebellious behavior. First a chewed crate, then crying at night, now a chewed bed. What’s next? What if she decides to take up with the hooligan German Shepherd down the street that barks all hours of the night? We had to put our foot down. This diva teenage behavior is unacceptable.

So we made the decision that she would not be getting a new bed. She ripped up the bed she could sleep on the foam scraps just fine. I even had grand plans to make a bed by stuffing a used pillowcase. Then we cracked.

While running errands at Bed Bath and Beyond we ran across clearance dog beds. As ever loving and forgiving parents we caved.

Now Chloe has a brand new pretty pink princess bed…

So what do you think, did we fail as parents enforcing her behavior that all she has to do to get a new bed is destroy her old one. Or is OK because after all she’s just a dog.