Minwax high operformance wood filler if the woodwork is painted. Larger holes can have pieces of wood embedded in the filler to save on filler (it is pretty expensive). There is no shrinkage and the material sets in less than 30 minutes. If you catch it while it has started to set but is not fully hardened it is easier to shave excess off with a chisel, then sand after it fully hardens. The wrost mess I had tyo repair inthe past few years was on old house with wide door caseing that had rim locks in every room. The molding had been chieled badly to accept the strikes of the rim locks. I went through a couple cans of Minwax filling in and then carving to match the molding profile. There were a number of double hung window muntins also badly damaged by moving the window with the lock sticking out. Fill, carve, and sand to repair.

I hate to admit this - but I actually ended up putting the toaster oven on a shelf in the garage - just outside the door to the garage. I have a pretty towel covering it up tho! hehe Anyhow, that's where my toaster oven has been banished to until I can think of a better idea. At first, I had it on a slide out shelf in one of my lower cabinets. There is already and electrical outlet inside the cabinet so it worked perfectly. Then while unpacking all of the other oodles of stuff for the kitchen, I found that space wise, having an entire slide out shelf for the toaster oven just wouldn't work. It's been replaced by food storage containers. In our old kitchen, it was mounted under an upper cabinet and worked GREAT. But I think that somewhere along the line, I must've turned into a kitchen snob - because I just could NOT have that in the new kitchen. LOL Somehow though - kitchen snob and toaster oven out in the garage - just don't go together.

Oh, if I could do a wider opening and pocket doors between my kitchen and DR, I would. But I'm losing mine when we remodel. Like heidihausfrau, our pocket door between kitchen and DR is narrow; even narrower than hers, mine is only 27"! It's ridiculous. We're widening the doorway to 31" or 32" (can't go wider than that). We had initially planned on installing another pocket door but since the wall that currently houses the pocket door can't accommodate a door any wider than we currently have (runs into exterior wall), we would have to switch the pocket door housing to the other side of the doorway, which meant changing the location of the light switches, tearing into the stairway support wall, changing the shelving in the pantry so that it wouldn't interfere with the pocket door ... in the end, we decided to nix adding a pocket door. We're also widening the doorway between kitchen and hallway, from 29" (swing French door) to 47" (no door). We can't install double pocket doors, either one on each side or double-upped with bottom rail nor do we have room for swing doors (would block light switches, etc). At first we weren't sure about going sans doors for both entries. We used the doors between kitchen and hallway and kitchen and DR when our kids were little but we hardly ever close them now. In fact, we took the hallway/kitchen doorway off its hinges months ago to see if we would miss it and we don't. judeny: thanks for the great idea to do a hinged swing door! I had nixed going with a swing door because my DR is narrow enough as it is; I don't want a swing door eating up space (it would also have to swap sides so it would run along the wall between wall and table). But if I can do a hinged door like you did and keep it folded up against itself along the same wall the pocket door occupies now, I just might be able to install a door between kitchen and DR after all. (I wish you had pics to share with us.) Do you remember how far from the wall the door extends when it's folded against itself? TIA! AujS, don't forget to plan for where your light switches will go on the pocket door wall. I'm sure you want them close to the opening so make sure your contractor knows so that he makes sure there's room for an electrical box to house the switches.

As said a wood chisel would be the better tool. But lacking that if you have a utility knife or maybe some drill bits you can accomplish it "good enuff." You say it is the new strike plate's "knurled flap" (my words, don't think there is a technical term) that is longer than the one on the old strike plate. All you have to do is cut a slit inside the latch bolt mortise to accept the longer "flap." Or use some drill bits and drill a few shallow hole depths in-line. The rest of the untouched existing mortise depth should be fine to accept the new lockset latch bolt. However, there is some stuff you should do first to make it all right: - Measure the flat edge of the location of the lockset latch bolt: Remove the strike plate. Shut the door so it is firm against the door stops. Take a piece of paper and stick it in the door gap to measure where the latch bolt hits the jamb and mark the paper. Open the door, and transfer a line where the edge of the latch bolt inserts into the mortise. This is to make sure you put the "flap" into the mortise to allow the latch bolt to spring into the mortise and your door is firm when shut. - In concert with above, mark the top and bottom heights of the latch bolt so your strike plate will be centered over the latch bolt. There is play here, so the existing may be fine. - Place your new strike plate within these marks and trace the outline onto the jamb. Make sure it is straight, as right now you have it angled a little bit. The old jamb mortise (that allows the strike plate to sit flush) may be a little off for the new one, so use your utility knife to mortise (cut a depth) and allow the new strike plate to be flush. - The old screw holes in the wood may be slightly off on your new strike plate. A few methods to fix this, depending on how far off. One way is to drill a tiny pilot hole and use a longer screw and force it to center on the new strike plate holes. - If the latch bolt mortise needs to be bigger, or the strike plate mortise deeper, then use your knife to score the wood in a grid and "chisel" the wood out as necessary. It's a struggle to explain with words. There is probably a Youtube video. ____________ * lockset - the door handle on the door * latch bolt - the springy retractable part of the lockset that is angled on one side and flat on the other * mortise - the hole in the jamb to accept the latch bolt, also the thin recess in the jamb to flush the strike plate. * door stops - the wood perimeter that the face of the door stops against