I've got a handle on this

Titles that also would've worked: "Come to the dark side, ya knob" or, for Good Eats fans, "Lever-Man to the rescue!"

Here's what we had:

Bad photography and overexposure, all over our doors! Actually, we had these cheesy brass knobs. They wouldn't be so bad if they weren't loose, broken, stained, dented, chipped, and mis-matched. To begin the replacement, ditch these screws in here.

Once those are gone, just pull the thing off.

This is what holds the latch in here. Take out these screws, too.

Now remove your strike plate. Is anyone else feeling like this is a home improvement blog set in "The Blair Witch Project"? Because I totally am.

Ooh, new handle! This is from a company called Gatehouse, available at Lowe's. We were originally looking to use Baldwin hardware, which is pretty seriously high-end stuff, but then we realized that we live in a tract home. Baldwin is beautiful, solid brass, has a lifetime warranty on the function of everything, and even warranties the finish for life! They just cost like $40/handle. Gatehouse is more like $30/handle and they are also solid brass, and have a lifetime warranty on the function and finish, which is awesome. It doesn't have the Baldwin name, but the style is great, and you can definitely feel the quality. If you're using oil-rubbed bronze (ORB to those in the know) hardware, stay away from Schlage and Kwikset. Our old apartment's leasing office had some of that on there and the black had worn off after less than a year. It looked awful and your only recourse is replacement since there's no warranty on the finish.

Ideally, you will remove all your door hardware, paint your woodwork, then put on your new stuff. We didn't do that because the handle on the bedroom was actually broken. It only worked when you turned it widdershins and even then, only about half the time. This is also a test run for this handle to make sure we like it and feel that it looks good in the house and all before we go around replacing all of our handles with them.

Slide this bad boy into the same space where the other one was. This brand came with a square plate and a rounded one, depending on your door. The rounded one fit perfectly, and the screws were actually nice and tight in there.

This is where the Gatehouse differs from the cheaper brands. The screws aren't actually exposed. There's a cover that goes over this part to hide them. Also, you can see the mass of brass involved here. If you go back up to the picture where I pulled the old handle, you can see the thin-walled, hollow brass base for the handle. This is heavier, more solid, and just plain nicer. Quality matters, and you have to spend a bit more to get it.

To get the cover off of this part, you have to pull off the lever. That means you take out the little set screw on the side and then the lever will slide off, allowing you to pull off the cover. Just reverse that to put it back on.

The cover slips on nicely and fits tightly. The little nub at the bottom is the lock. It works well, operates smoothly, and looks much nicer than the twisty ones, I think.

 Here it is all put together. Again, you will want to paint your door and frame and all before you put these on. I think we'll be taking this off to paint. Tape is okay, but the installation process goes so quickly (seriously, maybe 5-10 minutes) there's no reason to risk getting paint on your pretty handles.

So far, we are very impressed. The operation is smooth, tight and clean. It's everything the previous handle wasn't, plus it just looks much nicer. The lever looks classier to me, and the ORB really pops against the white woodwork. I think we're going to be very pleased with these for a long time.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!