I love the lever handles. We have them on all interior doors and the shop door. The four doors to outside are the regular door knobs. Every thing we have here is that brushed nickel. It is fine. I am not the least bit fussy about it. LOL

Maybe I'm not sure what you mean by lever handle, but anything is better than a plain knob. Easier to turn when you have on lotion, they're wet, or you have on gloves.

About finish, I don't know. We have antique brass because that's what was popular in 1983. They look awful now with a lot of discolored places. I didn't know they made stainless steel, but if it would still look great in 10 years, or even 2 years, I'd go for that.

marti - the lever is the handle with the 'bar' sticking out to one side and you push on it... that's why I need them. my hands can't take the gripping of the round/oblong type.

i have the shiny brass there now. I want something that won't get messed up over time especially on the outer of the exterior doors. they aren't cheap (to replace so many) and I don't want to replace them again. I shouldn't be allowed options tho... i'm so indecisive.

there are so many i'll have to replace some over time...just want to replace the ones I'll be using the most right now while someone is here who can put them on for me. I used to be able to do it but can't do the fine work now - my hands shake and I can't keep the screwdriver in the screw notch!

Steph another thought that probably will not concern you in AZ. Last night the door froze shut. I could not pull it open and had to get DH to open in.No grip in my hands and I even have glove with those little rubber dots for grip. Had I had a lever handle I might have yanked it off the door. So for some things the round knobs are good others not so much. We have not had any trouble with the shop door freezing shut and it has a lever handle.

I totally love those handles. You can even use elbows to open them. Same with the rocker switches for lights.When your hands do not work like we would like any thing to make life easier is a blessing.

Marti so far two and a half years now and knobs still look brand new.

shades - you're right - anything that helps with my hands! I do have the rocker switches in the new place too...

I looked at Hd and they mostly had satin nickel - it look shiny, sort of like coated with plastic. I didn't like that so much. they had a lot of orb also but I don't want that.

I went to faucets to get a look at what SS and brushed nickel would look like...would rather have one of those metals.
ended up getting sick - and I'd look at lights while there and started seeing spots with my bad eye... so i left and went home. and to bed (after checking the painters and putting girl out).

tomorrow i'll look at lowe's if i feel better.

Steph, I do not recommend the bedroom door locks on your exterior doors--UNLESS YOU HAVE A SEPARATE DOUBLE DEADBOLT.
If your door is flanked by small glass windows, having double deadbolts that you lock with a key, and remove the key, is more secure.

If your bedroom door is hollow core, then that could be kicked in without much effort, deadbolt with a lever on your side would only delay their entry to your room. How quickly CAN you load a gun!!!! Or jump out the window, for that matter?

About the metal selection. I have some brushed nickel door handles, levers not knobs. Much easier to open with your hands full of stuff. But my favorite metal is stainless.

One day, I hope they make locks for houses that open like the car clickers open the car doors. Mash a button.

I look at some houses which have possible entry points all over the place. Like two doors in the garage, then one front door. Double French doors in the master suite going to a deck, and double French doors going to an outdoor dining area. Then maybe a real kitchen back door. That is an awful lot of possible points of entry, and a lot of work locking things up at night. With my failing memory, I'm bound to leave one unlocked on occasion. So a simple ZAP and lock them all at one time would be my preference.

OH ML that would be great!! We have four doors to the outside. At first it was a drag checking and rechecking but we have gotten in routine now and it is becoming habit to lock. Summer is worse because I use all four doors until dark. Winter one door can not even be gotten to for the snow. In emergency we can get out it but it would be a four foot climb up over the snow berm and then drop down and swim through three foot on the flat. to get to a gate . I hope we do not have to go that way.

Steph I am not sure is is safe to have a dead bolt lock on your bedroom door. What if you have to call 911 and can not get to the door to unlock it? Course your out side house doors will be locked but to have to break through two locked doors to get to you.

Load that gun and keep the safety on and there is a special safety goes in the trigger part. Practice with working all of it until you have it come automatically to you.

I'd like a zap 'n lock too! my sister has 3 sliding glass doors, garage door, 2 mostly glass doors and a huge wooden front door. they all 'ding' if anyone opens them. she does have security hook up so not sure how that works at night. spect she still has to lock 'em all and set the 'thingy'.
actually, she's behind locked gates too... she only unlocks a door if she's expecting someone - usually me. I have a gate opener!

my gun is always loaded! it would give me a second or 2 to get it tho. it's always within about 3' at night. I like the idea that if one of the kids/gkids were here (not real likely with little gkids) that I could lock the door tho.
i didn't bother with the deadbolt on it.

the other doors got deadbolt's with the flipper on the inside. that's needed for me if I need to get out fast AND there is no glass area close to the doors. tho someone could break in thru a window and flip it unlocked. I do think they'd pick somewhere else tho - with dogs barking here... besides - they could just open the patio door!

I found some satin nickel I liked - it didn't look like the satin nickel at home depot. that looked like it was coated in a thick clear varnish. weird thing is I was looking at something online today and they even said the satin nickel was covered in clear varnish! ugh!

i bought the curved lever for my bedroom and the hall bath and 2 cheaper ones with a straight levers in satin chrome for the back 2 bedrooms. the local hdwr I went to the other morning only had 2 deadbolts and the 2 curved lever handles so went to another local hardware in the afternoon and found another deadbolt and 2 more handles that I like better than the curved ones... dang. I do still need a few more lever handles so will go back to the 2nd hardware for those i think.

i was thinking that the security screen doors might look weird with a curved handle on them so had the guy just put the 2 straight ones i'd bought for the back bedrooms on the security doors. the metal color is a bit off to the deadbolt but it was better to have handles on the security doors than the back bedrooms at this time. might switch them around when i get the new handles tho.

I do like the look of the stainless. at hardware #1 I found a stainless kitchen faucet i liked for 118.00! imagine that! and they have a bathroom sink faucet for 88.00 I think it was. stainless also and 1 handle. I couldn't believe I saw some I like in SS for that little!
one is Delta and 1 is PPhister I think.

Steph our lever handles are the straight ones and they work just fine.

I have a cabinet from another manufactured home with those brushed nickel knobs that look coated. I know what you are talking about. The rest that came with this house are not that way. They look metal.

One thing we have decided to do is add storm doors to two of our outside doors. Joe said it would help with the doors freezing up. Hope he is right. I do know it will help with ventilation. We had them at our last house and they were really nice. LOL More doors to lock.

"there is a special safety goes in the trigger part."

i'll have to check that out! my gun doesn't have a safety on it.

the storm doors will help with the freezing - they will keep the direct cold air and moisture from your regular doors.

the storm doors will also be great for ventilation in good weather. that's what I love about having the security doors. They'll allow the inner door to be open and let fresh air in - while being securely locked and the dogs won't be able to rip thru a screen!

I have 4 deadbolts - 2 at each ext door (not patio). the security doors also have deadbolts.

I recounted my sister's ext doors - she has 9!!! maybe 10!

one of her sliding doors goes to an atrium that is enclosed on all 4 sides - sliding glass doors on 2 sides and a regular ext door on the laundry room side of it. if counting the ext patio door on the atrium, that'd make 10 ext doors! yikes! that's still not counting the regular door in the garage to the outside (and that doesn't mean the one the cars enter/exit from), They must be nuts...lol!

i think the police would just kick the door in... just like an intruder would. lol!