BobVila.com

Interior doors can become damaged, difficult to operate or old-fashioned compared to the rest of the d�cor. Replacing an interior door is a one-day project for one or two people.

Bob Vila visits Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel, an architectural gem that symbolizes Miami. This curving white hotel, designed and built in 1954 by architect Morris Lapidus, is now a Hilton Resort near Miami's Art Deco District. As an architect, Lapidus flew in the face of conventional architecture, using curves instead of straight lines and avoiding corners in his designs. His grand spaces and stairways were reminiscent of French Chateaux. Lapidus' fanciful design was panned and ridiculed, but it still stands as a testament to the excesses of Miami Beach in the Post World War II era.

Bob moves to the kitchen in the Melrose remodeling project and talks with Jay Martel from the International Association for Child Safety about kitchen safety for toddlers. Martel reviews new products that can help make the kitchen safe. Martel shows an adhesive latch to prevent a child from opeining the refrigerator. Martel then shows a product that magnetically latches cabinets and prevents pinching. When activated, cabinet doors will not open until a magnetic "key" is used. The product can be disengaged by adults with a flip of the switch. For stove safety, Martel recommends parents use the backburners with handles turned away to prevent children from spilling heated foods and liquids. Martel explains that dishtowels draped over the stove's oven handle often invite children to pull on them and should be removed to prevent an accident. Stove knob covers should also be put in place. Martel shows how electrical outlets can be replaced with sliding covers that automatically slide shut when electrical plugs are removed. Bob and Martel then move to the staircase to review baby safety gates that have been installed. Martel says nothing is more important for children's safety than installing gates at the tops of stairs. Martel shows how the swinging gate requires two motions to open, a squeezing action followed by lifting. Martel reviews how the gate has been properly installed with affixed mounting hardware and inswinging action.

Bob meets with Bill Wilson of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau to discuss the beautiful areas surrounding the project home. The Berkshires are located along the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to Stockbridge. Around the turn of the century, New York millionaires built �cottages� in the area for summer retreats. These palatial mansions have now become resorts and tourist spots. The Berkshire area has drawn more than its share of writers and artists in the past, including Edith Wharton, Daniel Chester French, Hawthorne, Melville, and Norman Rockwell. The Berkshires are a vacationer�s paradise with boating, biking, golfing and hiking in the summer. Winter activities include skiing, snow shoeing and cross country skiing. In autumn, the incredible display of fall foliage is unrivaled. The Boston Symphony�s summer home is located at Tanglewood in the western Berkshires. There is also a lively theatre and art scene, as well as the Hancock Shaker village, an outdoor history museum.

Charles King of AMPM Door Service helps Bob revitalize the original aluminum sliding doors on the Miami condo. The aluminum is corroded and badly pitted on the exterior from exposure to salt air. King and his crew rub magnesium ore aluminum polish across the surface with cloths, then with abrasive pads, to clean off the residue. The interior aluminum shines up nicely, but King advises a quick coat of spray paint on the exterior to give a polished look and seal off the aluminum. The doors no longer slide well and have too much play, so King removes the doors to examine the rollers and clean the tracks. The nylon rollers need replacing, but the task is simple and saves Bob from replacing the doors completely. King finds a similar roller in his kit and fits it to the door, is able to use the existing rubber gasket, screws the roller housing to the bottom of the door, and reinstalls it. Now revitalized, the sliders work and look like new.

With inswinging French doors, the only option for screen doors on the Masher's newly remodeled space would be outswinging doors. Since that would compromise the space on the new deck, they have opted for sliding, retractable screens from Phantom Screens. These roll screens remain stored in panels alongside the door frame that blend into the decor. When open, they latch using magnets for a tight fit. For about $375 installed, these retractable screen doors have a limited lifetime warranty. Since the screens roll away into the housing, they are protected from the typical wear and tear endured by traditional screen doors.