Turning Lemons into Lemonade

This week I got the long awaited call...  our new back door had arrived!

So, H and I headed down on Saturday to pick it up.  We popped it into our Matrix (man that thing has been amazing at dragging all sorts of big things home for us!) and headed back up the hill to our house.

While I was inappropriately fondling it, I had a big rain cloud drop a bucket of cold water on me....... there was a big problem with our new door....

Notice anything? .....    Maybe this might help....

Yup, we only wanted 1 hole for the lock- aaaahhhg!  So, after a frantic call to the door supplier, he confirmed by fear that as a custom order door we were essentially s*#t outta luck, and we'd have to find a work around (lesson learned for next time, entry doors come standard with 2 holes unless specified!).

So, I asked him what he would suggest to get me out of the predicament I had found myself in.  I explained that I really wanted to stick with the square back plated design as it has a nice vintage vibe and matched the square door lites so well, and that I wanted Weiser to keep it compatible with the rest of the doors in the house.

So, we checked out the Weiser website and came up with two options that had matching square back plated levers and deadbolts.

The Standard Collections which I was familiar with:

And, the Metropolitan Boutique collection which I hadn't seen in stores:

Doing some reading on the Metropolitan and finding out that it was in Canada Only (unlike our southern neighbours it's a pretty rare moment when us Canucks can boast that fact), had even cleaner lines, same lifetime warranty.... and, the real kicker that it was about $40 cheaper for the lock and handle set than the Standard Collection (and amazingly, the set worked out over $20 cheaper than the original Verdani keyed lever that I was originally planning to use) I was sold.

So, I've placed my order for Halifax Square and matching deadbolt, which should be arriving in a week or so.  And....yes, I may have done an awkward 8.5 month pregnant dance to celebrate my win ;)

Finding a Pulse

Hi folks,

Yes, I'm still here, just been in a bit of a hibernation being busy getting ready for baby V's impending arrival (less than 1 month to go!).  Lots to tell you about, I promise!

One of the things on my our to do list for the house, was replace the back door.    As we put the front door replacement dream on hold as it was a nice to have vs a need , and at at over $3k we couldn't justify that much money on a nice to have.  So, the compromise H and I agreed on was to spend a bit more in a new back door which is a need to replace.

Other than the freakish smurf colour, it may not look too bad from afar....  But up close it's a whole other story.

Ummm, yeah.  Rotten frame, and milky glass..... what a warm welcome to our casa!  Like I said.... need!

My dream, as you know, is for a Crestview vintage style door.... but as they don't do door lite kits anymore (boo) and there are no suppliers in Canada (double boo).  I spent ages scouring Craigslist hoping to find a real vintage door, but finding good examples and anything close to the right size proved to be unattainable.  My next step was to see what else there was besides Crestview and Vintage, so I spoke to a local door company a few months ago (while getting prices for the front door) about this dream, and they mentioned a new series by Therma Tru, called the Pulse line, but their price was mucho dinero, waay to much for a back door.  So, I thought my dreams for a retro mod door were in the toilet and mentally prepared myself for a boring old normal door.

Then came the lovely Pam at Retro Renovation, who did a profile on Therma Tru's new doors, and it re-lit my door fire and I decided to give it another whirl.  I tracked down a few other local suppliers that carried the door and asked for pricing..... and as the prices started coming in I started to spy a light at the end of my mod door lovin' tunnel.  There was a huuge variance, and in the end I was able to find a company about 5 min from our house that can get me my door at 1/2 the price of the 1st company, and only ~$100 than the boring plain slab door I had been considering - score!

So, long story short, we pulled the trigger and we have a new backdoor on the way....  A Thermatru Echo offset with 4 lites.

To keep with the vintage vibe, I want to go with a non-round backplate (inspired by some local neighborhood and web images (like this,  this, and this).  So, we'll be pairing with the Weiser Verdani lever to keep with the square theme. So, excited!

The big moral of my door hunt story though, is to always get multiple quotations, because your dream design choice may be more financially attainable then you think!

In-sensed

Why is it that the ideas that are so simple in my head are so hard to execute in reality?

When we bought the house over a year ago, we inherited some atrocious exterior lighting.  The lighting situations at our front and back door were baaaaad, and neither served their purpose.  While the front light was replaced a few months ago, we've been limping along with the back light.

Our weenie little carriage sensor light (insert gag sounds here!) was barely sensing motion anymore, and if/when it did sense movement it would then stay on for hours!

The crooked, brassy-ness wasn't much of a big selling feature either!

 

Recently our sweet next door neighbour, mentioned in passing that our light was on all night the night before.... was everything ok..........  H and I got her hint, it was time for an upgrade.

We sat down and made our "must have" list:

1. Motion activated
2. Retro, Modern, or Contemporary styling (simple, clean lines)
3. Silver (chrome, nickle, aluminum...) or white preferably

After scouring our local DIY stores and online resources for an affordable option, we came up empty handed, why is it that they thing we all want either Carriage lights, Asian fusion, industrial (like factory industrial? Not cool industrial)??  I mean seriously, they are "same same but different".

And why the heck are all the cool ones I found online from the UK?!  And why does the UK have to have different voltage than N America, making them not usable (and not shipping here! And not sure if they would work here?!) Arg!!

 

sources:  pic 1, pic 2

The best N.American solutions I can find for us and our house's style are these

source

source

source

None of which are not really what we are looking for.....  Or these contraptions to convert a light to motion sensing?!  Seems a bit sketchy to me!


source

Because of the neighbour proximity and energy usage, we really don't want to have to go for a night sky (on from dusk till dawn) option -- which Murphy's law do come in some nicer designs! We are willing to up the budget for the right light (vs. an okay "for now" light), but are darned if we can find them.  So, having exhausted the web and our local stores do any of you know of any retro/contemporary/modern sensor light sources that may fit the bill?   If yes, please, please share!