Yesterday, the outside of my front doorknob stopped working. Quick trip to pick up laundry or take the trash out? Hope you remembered your keys. If you bothered to close the door in the first place, that is. A Herculean task since it sticks so badly that every time I say, "It's open, come on in!" Guests say, "No, it's locked. Sorry."
The locksmith just left. These parts haven't been made since 10 years before the building was built, and they were specialty items even then.
He can replace the door handle. With something "similar." Unfortunately, this idea seems to be dead in the water since the building requires all the handles to be identical. Cost? A few hundred dollars. Yield? Who knows.
He can also fix the sticky door and then rebuild the handle. Fixing the door? "Dust, lots a dust. A crowbar, sledge hammer. You gotta take all this paint off. And then you're gonna have bang marks. Can I show you without annoying you? Yeah? Like this." (Takes large wrench and bangs the edge of the metal door a few times. Hard.) Rebuilding the handle? "I'm gonna be honest with you. Even if I get premium materials, the stuff you get now, it isn't what you got 60 years ago. Manufacturing in the US today? It's crap. You might get a couple years outa it." Cost? Several hundred dollars and a few days opening a knobless front door with a screwdriver, which should be a real kick in the pants from the inside since it takes a pretty hefty hip bump in to open it from the outside. Thank goodness the dry heat of winter is upon us instead of summer's humidity. Yield after all this? A couple years.
Luckily, this is the low point of the past week or two, which mostly included the following:
A princess playdate
Thanksgiving feast, complete with a beautiful handcrafted centerpiece
Family
New books
Matching outfits
OSU football
Big boy high chairs
Help feeding the baby
And dressing like tourists even though we live here ("Look Mom! I'm all ready to go. I have my wallet and my binoculars!" But no coat. Because why would you need a coat with balmy temperatures of 35 degrees and soft breezes gusting above 30 mph?)
So, in the wake of all that fun, I will soldier on through this lousy Friday and remind myself that some days are like that. Even in Australia.
1 comment:
So does this mean that you have two high chair seat things or are we sharing. Life does have bumps in the road but just look into the eyes of those two cuties and know that it doesn't get much better.
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