Locksets

Last week I moved the bed into a corner to make the bedroom look bigger. Last night I thought, "What this fancy new bedroom needs is a working door lockset so the door will stay closed." I pulled the invoice for the replacement bathroom lockset from a few years ago and looked up its sku # on Van Dyke's website. The price had increased $4, to $20! Yeep!

So I thought about the remaining five doors with original locksets and found that the only operating latch of the bunch was in the door separating the public from the private side of the house. If I switched this one with the bedroom set, then the bedroom door would latch closed. I was just about to install this in the bedroom door when I saw it had a single screw on one of the big flat sides, holding the box together.

I'd never been curious about the workings of the original bathroom lockset mainly because I was newcomer to old houses and the grunge that can go with them. I knew that if I opened the bath lockset, roach eggs and spiders and rust would pop out and stick to my face. Now, I don't care as much.

Undoing the box, I discovered it's really very simple inside. The guts are rough cast metal. The latches seen on the outside are brass. The 6 parts all overlap each other with cast pegs. There is no oiling necessary. In fact, these look like a great engineering project for elementary kids, like something you'd find in a toy catalog.

I'm glad I had bought that new $16 lockset for the bathroom, which is a room that's nice to lock, like in the movies when you're home alone and naked in the shower and a guy with a machete breaks in. But I can almost kick myself that a little $.35 spring, circling the peg under the end of the pink arrow and extending to the hook on the right, is the reason these five doors won't stay latched and closed. I could see how the lock works too, and now I just need to find a key. I assume all the locks used the same key. Cheap and simple solutions are super!

New stuff to write about!

So I had a lengthy hiatus but did lots of things, and now there are projects, slightly unfinished, to write about.

Bathroom: painted, new light and new mirror cabinet ($8 from thrift shop). The new color IS peanut butter and I don't know how long I'll live with it, cause it's unflattering to me. And I keep craving grape jelly. The next coat will be lighter, and maybe not such an orangey tan. The trim painting is awaiting the wall choice so it could be awhile before the painting is completely finished. The window paint was incredibly thick; to strip it we used the ceramic heater and then after we both became dizzy, used a rotary sander to make lots of lead dust. So, not a project good for our health. It only stripped down to the smooth bottom layer of paint, a milk paint? which is very close to the peanut butter color the walls are now.

Color aside, the most important new thing is the shower rod; it's one continuous bar instead of the expandable kind with the joint that catches curtain rings. What a luxury! For only $6!

The new light fixture is 30's-esque, and wouldn't you know it, I chipped the sink somehow while painting. The curtain is a print of baseballs from last summer, my contribution to my husband's object-related superstitions about the Red Sox and their winning many games and having great luck. Its hanging in the bathroom must be the reason they won the World Series, of course.

Even if I think the color is too intense for such a small room, this is miles from the 70's dark wood strip vanity lighting and cracked plastic door hook, anyway.



The next picture is part two of the deck. It was precursed by debate over levels. We agreed that this section could be sunk down a step for a more private eating area. However, if we ever remove this pair of windows (where you can see the reflection of my hand) and replace them with doors out to the third section of the deck (see trash can), the third section would have to match the floor level of the house or be down a step. Mathematically it seemed best to keep part three at the height of the already-built first section, which matches to the back door threshold. But, if you wanted to walk from the first deck section to the third, you'd go across the corner of the second with a step down-half step ahead-step up. This seemed tedious to me so the deck will now be all one level.

"Don't mind the cat"

It was an indoors sort of day. So I made a neat improvement to our bathroom door. The door will close but nothing will keep it closed; the knobs didn't turn the latch. Ralph is very curious about closed doors, like most cats, and she loves the sound of all running water. She drinks from the sink, and sometimes from the toilet. I think she's just offended when we close the bathroom door. And no matter which guest is sitting on the throne, she pushes the door open to say hi. Last week I found a lovely new mortise set and with some modification to the setting in the door (notched out the knob and lock holes 1/4" more towards the jamb) I installed it. Everything is flush and it stays closed like a dream! I lock it just because I can. What fun to have privacy from the cat.





















Look! It has a skeleton key! The key is far cooler than the thumb lock. And if I get tired of that I can switch this set to another door that needs latching capability (There are four more with lesser need). I'll try opening the original to see if it's anything I can fix.

I cleaned the paint off the knob hardware by soaking it in hot water with dishsoap, and then vinegar and a toothbrush seemed to put a nice patina on it. The other hardware I've cleaned in the house looks bronzed, but this definitely has remnants of a sealed shiny brass finish. Which maybe gives me a clue to the finish on the missing original light fixtures in the rest of the house? Another house we toured nearby before chosing this one has its original ceiling fixtures, polychromed, flowery brass. I'm waiting to repaint or refinish the door and trim until we decide what to do with the 2006 builder's-special bathroom.