door knobs VS "eye holes"

a friend of mine stopped by last week with her kids, and as i was giving her a tour of the house, i couldn't help myself but point out all of the details that have yet to happen.
"i can't believe we don't have door knobs yet!" i exclaimed. to which my friends adorable 4 year old boy responded..."yeah, but you have EYE HOLES!"

yes.
yes we do.

and he was the perfect height to peer through...
keeps you on your toes, those "eye holes"!

it's been kind of a joke around here lately...
 "sweetie...maybe we shouldn't order doorknobs! these eye holes sure come in handy."
or...
"i kinda like the way the raw wood gently buffs away rough and unwanted skin from my fingers every time i try to open and close a door. its like a built-in loofah."

just kidding.
of COURSE we are ordering hardware.
it was just one of those things that we didn't get around to before we moved in, and since then, there have been so many other things to occupy our time, we just haven't taken the time to decide on anything. every time we get desperate (twice, now), and decide to run to lowes or home depot and just-buy-something-already, we realize how picky we are.

here is what we fell in love with:

emtek modern round knob with rectangular rosette (backplate)

i love the cylindrical knob and the rectangular back plate ...
ah, but at just over $130 per knob, we decided NO.
arent they lovely, though?



it is available in lots of options--here it is with a round rosette

we also like this octagonal knob with the square rosette.

(we thought about doing the main floor with the "nice" knobs and going really cheap upstairs. but even that was going to cost more than we wanted to spend.)

i DID find a nice alternative--the andover knob from schlage:

these are about 70% less than the ones i love, but still have a similar look.
we bought them in polished chrome.

i also liked this knob from weslock the impresa series, but they were not available in polished chrome:

so many of us fall in love with high end items that can be out of our budget, and there are some times when i think it is totally ok to splurge, but most of the time, an affordable alternative can be found for the high-end budget-buster. i think this is the perfect example! if i would have ordered the emtek knob that i LOVED, we would have spent close to 4K on all of our knobs. instead, all of our hardware, including exterior doors handle sets, dead bolts and pocket door hardware was around $850.

our knobs should be here within the next few days!
again, we turned to build.com they had great prices, free shipping, and i even managed to save and additional 5% by searching for a coupon code right before i ordered (which saved $50).

sadly, we will have to lose our "eye holes".
but, we will gain privacy, and the ability to open and close a door without getting a splinter!
i'd say that is a WIN for door knobs.