Doors and Locks

Before we dive into the big renovations on the house, we're still picking around at little things, trying to get a feel for everything that needs to be done. One thing I've found myself worrying over is the status of the entry doors and their locks- or, rather, their lack thereof.

I don't feel comfortable leaving the house unlocked and open once we start doing major work, since we'll have tools and the like sitting inside and I want it to be secure. On this weekend's trip out to the house, I dissected the front entry locks, trying to decide if they could be replaced with modern locks, or if we would have to rip out and replace the entire 1912 entry door.

The door in question

As you can see, we are dealing with some major issues on this door alone.

The pane of glass in the door is broken out and completely gone. Two separate window replacement companies have said they wouldn't work on it without replacing the door entirely, so that's going to have to a be a DIY. The old lock is operated by one of those antique, long, non-secure-looking keys, which I do not have. The slightly-more-modern, though probably still 50-year-old deadbolt on the door has been cut straight into the antique door plate, and is also rotted to the point that it will no longer accept a key. There is major peeling paint all over the back of the door and the door jamb is significantly rotted.

Other than all that... The wood on the door itself is in very good shape and I'd like to keep it.

In these next pictures, I've removed the semi-modern deadbolt from the whole assembly. You can see where it was roughly cut in to the plate, and the resulting rust damage.

The knob out front

The original plate is eroded to the point that the screws were threatening to strip out, so I hit them with some PB Blaster with the intention of trying again another day.

Front door- interior

The inside of the front door is incredibly gross, I'm sure due in no small part to the fact that the glass is missing and it's been exposed to the elements for some time. The inside is painted, but you can see the original wood under where I removed the deadbolt.

Also gross, the narrow side of the door. It seems this has been painted over several times in its life, but it just doesn't want to hold paint. There are a lot of little buttons and bolts in this piece that appear to no longer be connected to anything or operational in any way. I am interested to see the inner workings of these when I am able to get the knob assembly off.

Door jamb

The door jamb. The wood is in pathetic shape here, and the chipping paint is doing it no favors. You can see the closing latch of the now-removed deadbolt up top, with the plate for the antique knob just below it, covered in several chipping coats of paint. 

Lastly, there is one more feature to the door that I have never seen before. It's the remnants of an antique twist doorbell in the center of the door, near the window. 

Twist doorbell, exterior

The exterior of the doorbell is very simple, compared to some I've seen online. The little knob twists freely and seems like it could potentially be restored to operational status.

Twist doorbell, interior

The interior of the doorbell is a different story. It's been painted over, rusted out, and is missing its cover and ringing mechanism. Looking online for replacements, it seems I may have to replace most if not all of the bell if I want it to work again. I think I will take off the entire thing, clean it up, and either put it back on in it's current, non-operational state (but clean) or eventually shop for a reproduction piece to replace it. I love the design of the interior of the bell and would like to keep it, but I'm not sure how realistic that is at this point.