Monday 12 August 2013

Curb Appeal Improvements

While waiting on various bathroom items to come to completion, it was hard to keep from making some outdoor improvements in the beautiful Winnipeg summer weather! 

New Front Doors

Our old doors were drafty, and left some security to be desired. They had bathroom door knobs, the kind you push in and turn to lock. Not only was this less than the security offered by a dead bolt, it left us locking ourselves out of the house more than we'd like to admit. No keys were needed to lock up, so we'd end up outside with no way back. 

We had planned to get doors from our local Home Depot, and even asked for a quote on installation, after hearing from multiple sources that installing doors yourself isn't as easy as you'd think. The installer ended up calling us back, and promptly informed us that we should order doors from somewhere else that has better quality. Great sales pitch from someone who's contracted to by Home Depot, they should probably check on their installers more often. Anyway, this lead us to get back in touch with our window supplier, who had quoted us a lot more than we were planning, but half the price of the Home Depot install company. 


The new back door in all its beautiful windowed glory. 

The front door doesn't have a window,
but will hopefully be sporting a colorful and welcoming wreath soon enough.
The doors took a few months, but they're in and they're beautiful! Plus they protect us from exterior threats like elements and intruders, which is about as much as you can ask from a door. Success!

We hope to paint them at some point, but just waiting to get a feel for what we'd like best.

New Door Hardware

In preparation for the new doors, we went to select some hardware. Our door supplier suggested Schlage or Weiser, so we stuck to those brands, which can sometimes be nice when there are so many options out there.

We ended up with a sleek and modern set for the front door, and some basic levers on the back. Exactly like you see below. We're super happy with them! 



We also did quite a bit of gardening but we'll have to talk about that another time! Do you think next we should update our banner to reflect the weather outside? Christmas in August anyone?