Keep Out

The first thing Joey wanted to do after purchasing the house was to install new locks on all the outside doors. I guess he thought it was a good idea to keep the old owners out. Well, this turned into a far more complicated process then he (we) could have imagined. Keep in mind, these locks have been on these doors since 1928. There are 3 doors that need new locks. And apparently, they don't make new locks like they used to!

Joey started this attempt Thursday night and ran out of time. As a side note, he was doing this over the course of a few hours as the old owners were removing the last of their stuff and leaving. Nothing screams "Hey! Get out of our house!" like installing new locks in front of the previous owners.

So, on Friday morning he returned to "quickly" complete the project, and he was under a serious time crunch as he was trying to leave town by 1pm. That didn't happen. And he only got 1 and 1/2 doors semi-done.

Door #1: The Back Door
Grade: A - Easy breezy - Joey didn't have to remove any of the original hardware because we wanted to keep the original knob with the skeleton key. We just wanted to add a new deadbolt for added protection. Pretty simple (so he told me) and complete.



Door #2: The Side Door
Grade: C - Very Difficult - Joey had to remove the old hardware which was a big metal-like thing. And it left a gaping hold in the door - leaving nothing to screw the new hardware into. After a run to the hardware store, Joey inserted a block of wood into the hole, screwed the new block of wood into the door, and then started screwing the new hardware into that block of wood. Problem - the block of wood split right down the middle as Joey was about to finish. By this time his shin was bleeding (not sure how that came about) and he was about ready to start cursing. Being that it was past 1pm, there was no time for a complete redo. So, Joey semi-finished it with a redo to come.



Door #3: The Front Door
Grade: I - Incomplete - Didn't get to that yet. I'm guessing it will be as difficult (if not more difficult) then the side door. Hopefully I will have a "completed" picture after this weekend. Thankfully, there is supposedly only 1 (very old) key to the front door, and we have it. So, no breaking and entering should occur. :)