We have a rim lock on one of our exterior doors, supplemented by a deadbolt. We have an old house, and there was what I guess was the original rim lock there when we bought the house, but it had no keeper. To replace it, I got one of the more ornate rim locks with keeper from HOAH. What I discovered was that the door frame wasn't on the same plane as the door, so I had to affix a piece of wood to bring the keeper in line with the latch. Also, the doorframe didn't seem to have enough wood behind it where the keeper needed to go, so the screws holding the keeper kept coming loose. I solved this by affixing the aforementioned piece of wood further way from the edge of the doorframe. So this is a long way of saying that you would need to let your contractor know that the doorframe needs to be able to accomodate the keeper. Also, if you live in a cold climate, you'll want to get draft covers for your keyholes. Here is a link that might be useful: Draft cover

I have some we got from the fellows that helped restore our home.also alot of glass the deadbolt wont do much.I Had a policeman tell us once he could show numerous ways to get in a door with glass.....MY deadbolt is a piece of brass with key hole on outside with a oval piece of brass with about a 1"brass knob on it in the inside.All you do is turn Right till you hear it lock.

Thanks to all for the posts on the brown color. I'm perplexed by DearMrsRobinson's experience with Schlage and Kwikset being brown. I saw those in person at the big box stores, and they looked black to me. I held them out in the aisle, I asked another customer and the employee. We held a black stool next to them. There was almost no difference between the black stool and the handlesets. The employee said that it was probably the lighting in the store, and that in the light, they were more brown. But the bronze porch lights and such in the store, in the same lighting, looked brown. So...I don't know. Maybe the employee was right. Anyway, I got an Emtek handleset. I have bronze-brown lamps and potpourri holders. When I hold the handleset next to them, the handleset is noticeably darker. But it IS brown, most definitely. And now that it's on the door, you can tell it's brown and not black, even from the street, and matches the bronze hinges perfectly. It's a beautiful handleset. with some subtle edges of gold here and there. I'm very happy with it. Got a good price online, too. I went with a curvy lever for the inside. I was nervous about that, since I've never had a lever. I checked with the online vendor, and if I wanted later, I could order a knob for it. But the lever works great! I love it. So easy to open. Thanks to everyone for your recommendations and information. It was so helpful. I'll post a pic soon.

The standard backset distances are 2 3/8 and 2 3/4. and have been since long before 1989. That is the distance from the center of the hole to the door edge. Exterior door hardware is almost always 2 3/4 setback. There is however no standard distance between the hole for the latch and the hole for the deadbolt. I have some that are 3 5/8 and 5 1/2 both from emtek. other manufacturers will be different. The hole for the lock and latch are generaly 2 1/8" dia. Sometimes a deadbolt hole is as small as 1 3/4" Small holes can always be drilled larger. If you can't find a handle set that matches the center distance of your drilled holes, There are many sets available that have the deadbolt completely separate from the handle, and can be installed at any distance. A lot of times the phrase "they don't make that any more" means "Home Depot doesn't sell that type and I'm to lazy/stupid to look on the internet". If you don't want your house to look exactly like your neighbor's, you have to shop on the web.