Friday, October 12, 2007

Knowing When to Say When


As a remedy to the 2 inch gap under the current interior doors, I thought I wanted to replace our yucky hollow-core doors with some nicer solid-core doors. I picked out the new doors and hardware. I kept the budget very reasonable. I met with the door installation contractor. The contractor, a polite man who was articulate and seemed sane, said that he couldn't just hang new doors with new hardware. Instead he would remove all the current door frames and trim with a crowbar and install new, pre-hung doors with new frames and new trim. He went on to explain (with a straight face) that it's easier for him and less costly for me, the customer, to just replace the whole door set-up. It made sense when he said it. I thanked him for his time and showed him out.

The more I thought about the project, the more I realized that neither Chad nor I want to paint the new doors and trim. Nor do either of us want to watch as the patch-jobs we did on these 55-year-old walls crumble to dust under the pressure of a crowbar. Nor do we want to have sheetrock replacement added to the project list. Nor do we want to come back through this freshly painted house with four different colors of paint for the touch-ups after the crowbars are applied to our walls. Nevermind. These doors are fine. I hardly notice that gap under the doors. My eye now breezes right over that spot where someone painted over stickers on the bedroom door rather than removing them.

My consolation prize of sorts was to replace the old doorknobs with new ones that match all the other hardware in our house. With my trusty electric screwdriver, I had all the old knobs out and all the new knobs in place in just over an hour. It was a nice surprise for Chad when he got home from his day trip for work.



________________Old Doorknob_________________





New Doorknobs