Door Hardware

We're getting down to the little details in the bathroom renovation.

The existing door knobs are the only "new" knobs in the entire house... and brass toned on the outside, chrome on the inside.  They look really out of place in the hallway, compared to the bedroom knobs.

Then I remembered that there are some old doors that were left up in one of the barns (you can see them hiding in a photo in this post).  So, this weekend I went out to see if they had any hardware on them.  

All cleaned up!

I couldn't believe my luck!  There was one door with a plate that matches all of the others in the house!  The inside had a lock box that matches the originals too!

We put them in stripper to get off layers & layers of old paint.  Then Mike cleaned & oiled the inside parts.  

I think I will repaint the lock box black, but the brass door plate is really pretty- so I think I'm going to leave it.  (It's making me think I should strip the plates on the rest of the doors!)

I'm just missing the door knob and the "lock keeper" (rectangular piece that goes on the molding), but I should be able to find replacements online.

We did a lot of other bathroom odds & ends: installing the toilet, finishing the vanity installation, hanging the vanity mirror, toilet paper holder, towel bars, & wall hooks.  Plus Mike made a door saddle- more on that soon... 

I can't wait to do a reveal post, but things like the back-ordered switch plates are holding me up!!!

Shouldn't be too long now though... 

It's hard to see,
but here's the existing knob set.
(excuse the older photo!)

Just a little fixing...

The surprises never end!
Here's a little round up of this month's unexpected fixes...

TWO plumbing issues

First one-

I heard a hissing coming from the pie-safe in the basement (it's basically a walk-in closet that we are currently using for paint storage.  It's not very pretty- yet- so I don't have photos!) 
I went in to see the main waterline sputtering water right where it comes into the house- not a lot of water, but not good. 
The hole was below the shut off valve (the blue handle in the photo).  So, we had to turn off the electricity to keep the pump from running while Mike fixed it. 
A day without water or electricity, but fixed without calling a plumber!

All fixed!

Second one-
When I cleaned off the porch for the winter decorations, I decided to wash the porch furniture cushions.  Sounds good, right? 
Except that one of the cushions was a little too big, and it threw off the washing machine balance during the spin cycle (Oops!). 
Which in turn, knocked a hole in the corroded nozzle that ran the cold water into the washer (Yikes!). 
Mike already had a replacement hose (Yay!)  but needed a quick trip to Lowe's to replace the blow torch that we still haven't found since we've moved... an hour later, up & running! (Whew!)

And finally the one thing that didn't give us a headache (but was too minor for it's own post!)

Three drawer handles of my son's dresser drawers were broken... it's the little top drawers, so wasn't too much of an issue... for a while they just kept popping out of their bracket, but then got lost (as things usually do in the bedroom of a six year old!) 

While I knew it was an easy fix, I just hadn't gotten around to it...

After

Before

Well, I finally fixed them!
We can now get socks out without using our fingernails to pry the drawer open!

Why didn't I do this sooner!?!



All the small things...

Recently, we've been tying up some of the loose ends on projects we've already posted about.

Here's an update!

Family Room

The radiators are now both painted and the canvas prints are on the wall.

(The photos were taken by

 Bonnie Raley Photography!)

Mom bought us a wrought iron candelabra that dates to the time period of our house.  Out in the barn, we found a wrought iron hook and circle to hang it from the ceiling beam.
It looks great all lit up and reflecting in the mirror over the fireplace!





Nautical Kids Room

Offending jungle lamp circled in yellow

Due to the lack of overhead light fixtures, we quickly unpacked every lamp we had. In here, we were making do with the "Jungle Animal" lamp from the nursery decor- but I really wanted something that coordinated with the theme. We found a cute little lamp at the Morrow Memorial Turnover Sale, painted it, and topped with a 3rd nautical lampshade from Dad's childhood bedroom. 

Through most of the house
The door hinges were painted over in white. 
Repainting with flat black really brought up the details & gave a "finished" look.  If/when we dip the doors, then we'll strip the hardware down to remove all the old paint, but this will have to do for now!

Before



After

Basement

The new clothes drier has been installed.  This is definitely the "small thing" that made the biggest difference functionally.  I'll spare you the photos though... it's just SO not fun!

Kids/Guest Bathroom    


Before

After



 There was this awful crack between the moulding & the walls- all the way around the room.  I tried to do the "fill it in with paint" trick when I painted the room, but the space was just too large. 

I found a great tip on the "Young House Love" blog about filling it in with caulking which won't crack when it dries, like spackle does. 

It worked!  I feel so much better now! 

Master Bath      Shhhhh.... I did it!



New hardware

Old hardware

After looking at the old drawer pulls for 2 months, I couldn't stand it anymore.  I saw these at the store & couldn't resist!  Let's see how long it takes for Mike to notice ;o)

 

 




Old shade



New Shade

Another fast fix in this bathroom is the light fixture.  Since we don't yet know what the final layout of this room will be, I didn't want to purchase anything new that needed to be rewired.  So I settled on changing out the shades.  It's a slight improvement!

 



Things We Love

Just a few of the reasons we fell in love with the house...

The wood banister- which goes all the way to the third floor!

The fireplace- it has a much more rustic feel than our old house's fireplace (hence the tools that don't match at all... we're working on that!)

The built in shelves

The pretty radiators

The original hardware

The front porch

The property- over five acres (That's a lot of mowing- more on that to come!)

Next up... the things we're working on!