Doorknob

This is just a silly little musing, but we have been having a bit of trouble with our doorknob. Irritating!

To prepare for this blog entry, I needed to do some studying. In my endless quest for knowledge (hah!) and my zeal for knowing how things work (if they affect me in a major way) I found the above diagram of doorknob parts and vocabulary. Many thanks to http://www.et.byu.edu/groups/cmfac/acuppett/Lessons/Hardware/DoorknobDiagram.gif for their great picture.

The problem was that our deadlatch was not springing into place when we released the doorknob. This was of concern as the cat and wind would push in the door at the most inconvenient times (which is anytime). Allan and I decided that it was time to get a new front door assembly. When Allan priced these at Home Depot, however, the least expensive one he could find was SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. He decided, and I agreed, that $75 was simply too much to pay for this problematic piece of hardware.

Now, this may seem unrelated, but bear with me, since I promise you it will all come together. Allan has been on vacation this week, and has been working on home improvement projects galore. We went to Builders Bargains-Habitat for Humanity, which is a thrift store of used and sometimes new (leftover) building materials. We were looking specifically for white exterior paint for the deck (didn't find) and tile (found!) for the counters we are putting together in the laundry room. I happened to find some other stuff I liked a lot, like some brackets for shelves I plan on putting up in the laundry room, as well as some lovely knobs to complete the cupboards and cabinets in (you guessed it) the laundry room. While I was pawing through the knobs I noticed Allan in another section playing with doorknobs. He had spent some time working on what we have in the door, trying to make do. We left without anything, but Allan had memorized some doorknobs in his quest to figure out the problem of ours.

Last night he decided to make the incredible investment of $1 for one of the doorknobs he had seen at Builders Bargains. I was on assignment to pick one up (after a cursory lesson on what to look for) while I was down at that end of town. And lo and behold, our doorknob, including deadlatch, is working perfectly!

I love recycling, making do, repairing (or at least having Allan repair), and finding ways to save money. And learning new vocabulary words. So, so satisfying.