Hello everyone! I’m Jeanette from This Dusty House.

My husband and I have been working hard to renovate our fixer-upper on the east side of Toronto for the past year and blogging about it almost every step of the way.

Coming up, we have big renovations plans, plans to add a second storey to our small bungalow. The project requires jumping through hoop after hoop in order to get variances and building permits, so, while we go through the process, we’ve turned to smaller projects that can get done now with minimal effort but high impact. One of those little projects I’ve been thinking about is our doorbell.

When we moved in, we had a fully functioning doorbell, though neither the button nor the box were exactly pretty. When we got around to replacing it, we discovered a problem: in the process of cutting out the plaster and re-drywalling, we amateur DIYers cut right through the doorbell wires with a Sawzall.

Oops.

We could re-run the wire, but I’m not fond of the holes we’d have to patch after we’ve snaked the wire from the doorbell to the box. Instead, I’m thinking of other ideas.

Door knockers!

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What do you think? Do doorknockers add or detract from a beautiful door? Are they actually a decent alternative to a door bell or just pretty ornamentation?