One of the difficulties in renovating an older house is finding doors and trim that both fit in the space needed and the look of the house.

We changed the bathroom around a little when we removed the plaster and lathe – leaving us with an odd size door opening and no door that would fit it.

My amazing dad found a slightly bigger door and made it fit.

But it had no hardware.

We just made do with a simple hook and eye latch – which worked great until we put the trim up. Then we realized that the eye part of the latch would have to be put right in the middle of my newly refinished trim.

No way.

So for a few months – we used a bleach bottle to hold the bathroom closed.

It worked okay until we started opening windows – then the wind would blow the door open despite the bleach bottle. Rather embarrassing…

Now I started to worry.

I know that very soon we would be having a graduation open house here – followed in a few days by a large family reunion – followed in a few days by the visit of  several nieces and nephews.

We needed a permanent solution. So I started to pray for a door.  I needed a 28 inch solid wood door – vintage 1920’s – preferably pine – that had a door knob at exactly the right height.

It would take a miracle.

Silly me – I have a God that specializes in miracles!

It only took 2 trips to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore before we found them – 2 pocket doors – 28 inches, pine, vintage 1920’s and since they are pocket doors – they have no hardware so we could buy new and put it where ever we wanted on the door.

I cried in the ReStore. 🙂

We bought them both.

A little bit of sanding – well – alright – a whole lot of sanding! 🙂 Some stain and a few coats of varnish and we have a perfect door!

The new – but old-looking doorknobs fit right in the decor – and – as an added bonus – even lock!

My dad installed it this weekend and my heart sings every time I heard the click of the door knob!

Bye-bye bleach bottle! 🙂