I had to make a front doorknob decision sooner than I expected, and it highlighted a frequent conundrum. The top piece of advice that we received from area experts (our realtor and her husband) was "don't over-improve." It's a small house in a neighborhood of nice but small houses in an area with low real estate prices. We have a 12-18K (at the very highest) window for how much we can put into the house without losing money. Thankfully, that doesn't include the amount that the sellers allowed up front to fix structural/plumbing/electrical issues, but I'm still surprised at how hard it is to fit all of the necessary improvements into this budget (floors, paint, vanities, sinks, baseboard, replacement windows, etc). So we don't want to make it too nice, but we still want it to be quite nice because a) it will be our house, and, perhaps more importantly, b) we will be selling it within 5 years.
So, the doorknob. I was limited to what was in stock at the local Home Depot. This was was fifty bucks:
This (which I prefer) was a hundred bucks:
Jonathan thought that the knob was the obvious choice (half the price! it's just a dumb doorknob!) I agreed, plus it seemed like a precedent-setting "don't over-improve" decision ....except that when I saw the doorknob for the first time today it looked a little sad. I just noticed that there is a $50 handle set online, although it's definitely cheaper quality than the good old nob (there's another connundrum...looks or quality?). I wonder if the carpenter left the receipt? Sigh.
You said you thought the white door looked sad by itself too. Maybe wait until the door is painted and then rethink the doorknob.
ReplyDeleteChanges take some time getting used to. Wait a couple of days and see if your perspective changes. That's my advice.
Also, for what it is worth, I like the silver handle better. I don't know what your house looks like, but I think the more expensive doorknob would have been overkill. My utterly irrelevant opinion. :)