One of the first things we do when we move into a new house (yea, we can say it like this now that we have 2 notches in our proverbial “house” belts 😉 ) is change the locks. One way of doing this is calling a locksmith. The Baker way of doing this (and I’m sure many people’s way of doing this) is to DIY!
The main reason for this post is not to tell you how to go down to Lowe’s or Home Depot and purchase new locks, install them onto your doors, etc. and so on. The real reason behind this post is to tell you about this super awesome handy new invention that’s called “SmartKey.” Maybe we are late in the game, but until House #2, we had never heard of SmartKey. FYI: this is also not some type of add for Kwikset, although we wish we were profiting from this 😉 We are really just amazed at this product!
In House #1, we had a front door and a back door – that’s it. In House #2, we now have two front doors and two back doors as well as a door on the basement that needs locking! Take out the one back door because it’s a slider that can no longer really be accessed with a key and that’s a grand total of 4 doors. We’re up two whole sets of locks from the last house! That’s where the genius of SmartKey comes in…
This type of door lock replacement allows you to re-key your lock instead of completely replacing it. Our front door had a SmartKey lock on it, so all we had to do was buy Kwikset’s SmartKey “Re-Key” kit. You place the old key in and turn the dial on the existing lock to “learn mode”. Then you insert the special tool provided in the kit, insert the new key (also provided) and with another turn of the dial, you’ve got yourself a brand new, working key. We tested the old key and, sure enough, it didn’t work anymore!
These things are genius! We’ve wasted a lot of time changing locks and I’m sure many people waste a lot of money hiring professionals to do this for them too. We typically don’t write blog posts exclusively about products, but when we stumble upon a product that’s changing the game in DIY and home improvement, we can’t help but rave about it! Rave on. 🙂
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