Thanks for your thoughts and comments! We are also downsizing from a traditional 4700 sq ft house (with formal living/dining) to 3600 sq ft with a great room design, so it is taking some getting used to, but we really wanted a house where we used every inch rather than having all these extra rooms we rarely used. Our old house was large, but didn't use the space the way I would use it--my laundry room was tiny (a closet really) and the bedrooms were large but the kids rooms had tiny closets. So, with this house, we made made sure the kids still had large rooms like they were used to and got larger closets and their own bathrooms to boot (my son doesn't really care, but my daughter is super excited to get her own bathroom and walk in closet :)). Once they move out, we'll have mini suites downstairs for guests. The kitchen/dining/living area is 41' long. Looks like we will be working with roughly the same area for those spaces. :) What is the total sq footage of your house? Of our 3600 sq ft, there is about 1930 for the main and about 1670 for the LL. Nice that you were able to fit 3 bedrooms downstairs and still have a nice sized rec room and play area. We will also have a wet bar down in our rec room. :) Great idea about adding water line in one of the storage rooms for laundry! We do plan to add stairs from the deck outside but just couldn't decide where to place them so figured we would wait to make that decision at the time the deck is being built so we could see what it looks like. I love that you will have an outdoor shower. Love those! We plan to put a hot tub on the deck right outside the master. Thought about putting it down on the LL patio, but my DH really wants it on the deck. Gotta give in to what he wants every once in a while ;-).

Thanks to all your responses & suggestions. Replacement hinges are a possibility...I've never done hinges on a door, so I'm not sure I can handle that. Might be easier to paint the parts that show. But I'll think about that. I think I'll get the black hinges & either replace or paint them. As for why I'm replacing the door instead of leaving as is, the door is an eyesore. The entry door is very important, esp for curb appeal. I agree if it were okay, not worth it to upgrade. But it sends a cheap message upon entry to the house, so I'm going to upgrade it to at least something decent and attractive. I have done some research on what might be worth doing to fix up the house for selling it. So I decided to concentrate on the curb appeal, the kitchen, the baths. I'll be doing as much as possible myself, contracting out the things I can't do (like granite countertop....my countertop is chipped & must be replaced, anyway). Then I'm going to concentrate on de-cluttering, painting everything in sight, and cleaning it until it sparkles, as well as staging. I still remember all the musty smelling houses I encountered when house shopping years ago. As a footnote, I decided to go with the big box (Lowe's). The contractor, as it turns out, quoted on the wrong doors. So although that contractor was highly recommended on Angie's List, I think my project is too small for him to bother with (altho I am getting TWO doors...the 2nd one is the one to the garage, which doesn't close properly and is also an eyesore). Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll just go with the matte black hinges and either replace them or paint them.

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.

We have used Emtek on our last 2 homes, interior and exterior, and love the quality. We did use a cheaper brand (don't remember what) on the side door, and it's a keypad. Like Tibbrix said, the best of both worlds. I wouldn't like a keypad on the front door. We ordered from Simpson's both times. Wonderful company! We just had a problem with a couple of missing parts on our front handle set we purchased at least 6 months ago, but we're just installing, and Mr. Simpson took care of it without batting an eye. I think that company Handlesets is part of that online conglomeration like "Faucets", with whom I had an order go wrong multiple times, involving order and return 5 times, for ONE faucet.