I'd say go for it. Make the jambs out of solid 5/4 stock with the door rabbet cut out, so no applied door stop molding. The heavy jambs will be such a great upgrade over the stuff they send out with prehung doors, not to mention the unspeakable garbage of split-jamb doors. You will need to figure out how to mortise the hinges accurately, and troubleshoot hanging problems like hinge-bind, and the one tool to invest in (for rabetted jambs) is a #78 stanley rabbet plane so you can plane tight spots on the jambs in place, after the doors are hung. A real time-saver. You will probably also want a #10 1/4 jack-rabbet plane (yes, seriously) to clean up the rabbets that you make with a table saw. Casey

If you really want to replace the locks you can use a hole saw and a piece of 2x lumber to guide everything. Use the hole saw to go through a piece of 2x6. Clamp the pieces of 2x6 over the old hole centered up. Drill through the door with the same hole saw. Be very carefull as t=you break through. Clamping some 1x on the off side can prevent chipping as the saw exits the door.

Normally the stems won't work --- did they cut the opening for the lockset on the doors? Otherwise -- if the door is the same thickness as the original doors, you could cut the mortise lock in place. If you look --- the old stems are so different than new lock sets. And doorknobs and stems can vary a great deal --- are the stems round, square or even 3-piece triangular shaped? Do you have the set screws for the old knobs? It is silly -- but the set screws seem to be the hardest things to find. Good luck --- I would try to use your old knobs with the orginal locks. But again -- I'm an old hardware junkie!! Cathy

"Personally, I don't care if my bedroom doors can lock or not. Who am I keeping out and why?" I think it is wise to have locks on some interior doors. Especially if you tend to keep any valuables in your bedroom or office. I can think of at least three examples of why this would be a good idea. I was settling a relatives estate. There were items I definitely wanted to keep so I put these in a spare room that had a sign on the outside door clearly marked 'STAY OUT'. The auctioneers' workers tried to get into this room anyway. How do I know? I was sitting inside reading a book and they opened the door to peek. What part of STAY OUT didn't they understand? Later on I checked their truck to see what they had loaded and had to remove a few items that weren't intended for auction. Another example is when we purchased our house. We've had all sorts of contractors in to do work. I don't know them or the people they hire. The last thing I want to have to worry about is a stranger going through my personal effects while I'm trying to stay out of their way so they can get the work done. Even relatives or roommates can be a problem. I've had roommates that ran out of stuff and would go into my room to 'borrow' things. Last but not least, interior locks on doors can also be useful in the event of a home invasion. Just google 'safe rooms' to see what I mean.