Doorknobs from Ebay!

Sometimes I just randomly click on over to ebay to see what's there. Since I got the house I've always kept an eye out for doorknobs. You know it's really hard to find matching hardware for old houses, and my doorknobs are especially difficult. They aren't the mortise lock type doorknobs that most houses this age have. The doorknobs are made by Schlage, and are what I'd assume are their first crack at the modern doorknob. During the duplexing process, some of the original doorknobs went missing, so my quest finding replacements has been rather unfruitful...

Until now!
I found some on ebay last week! They are pewter, not brass like the majority of my knobs, but they are from the same time period. The metal ones have a hammered look to them, but some of them are glass and match the ones I have already in the house. A couple of the glass ones were made with black glass. How cool is that?

Even though some of these knobs are different, they are period-appropriate so they should work. Of course, this means that I'd have to get back to working on the house. Maybe they'll just stay in the box until spring break. We'll see!

BTW, I'm glad I paid for shipping on parts of the doors! What's up with that?

On a different topic, my friend Martha from the neighborhood association emailed me with some great advice for my water leak issue. It was so obvious I felt absolutely dumb for not thinking of it myself. A mug. A big mug from a local establishment's mug night. You see, when you put the mug under the drip, it stops the water from spreading out into the rest of the room and the rug. See why I feel dumb for not thinking of that? Wow.

Basement Evils

Today I ventured down to the basement to see if I could try to fix my dryer. About half way through disassembling it all to take out the faulty heating element I decided to give up and just hire someone to do the job. I'm sorry, I just don't have the patience for that right now!

But, while I was busy screwing parts back together, my roommate started taking a shower upstairs right above me. Not a problem you'd think, but subsequently I began taking a shower too. Yes, maybe I need one, but I'd prefer to take mine on my own schedule. What was once a small leak at the shower's drain seems to have lead to a bigger problem here. I took a little video so you can understand my situation. Sorry for the poor lighting conditions.


It looks like replacing that shower stall might just be moving up to a sooner project. I'll be caulking soon, if nothing else.

I'll also have to tell the roommates to not take showers while the dryer guy is downstairs! Gotta love the house...

Get a 'Handle' on that Rain!

Ok, sorry for the pun. This post is mainly about a doorknob, but first things first. Last night at about 3am there was a pretty big thundersorm and I caught some footage of my living room water feature. Enjoy.

Yeah, sucks huh?

I contacted the roofer who "repaired" the flashing around the chimney and he's coming out to take a look on Saturday.

Well back to the doorknob. I've been in my house for over a month now, so I figured it was about time to put a doorknob on the front door. Nope, didn't have one. All it had was a deadbolt and a couple of window sash pulls, one inside and one out. I'm really hoping that my roommates are surprised. Hooray for small accomplishments!

Here's what it looked like to start with:

Starting to cut the holes back in (they were filled in with plaster):

Holes completed:Doorknob! Success!

I also started sanding down the walls in my room so I can get them primed and painted. I'm really anxious to get that space done and my furniture moved in so I can have some sort of sanctuary from my own house!

Sand and Water: no, not the Beach.

Mom and my twin sisters came to Fargo Friday to help get the NW bedroom ready to be occupied. Mom primed the new walls and painted the ceiling. We mixed texture sand into the primer to replicate the look of the plaster walls in the room.

I tried with the textured primer just long enough to realize that it wasn't easy to work with, then left for work. Mom did a great job working with it and when I came home from work the walls were done and ready for paint. I know I'm not going to get off the hook that easy for all of my texturing. Thanks Mom!

So there was the sand... but where's the water?

Coming in from the living room ceiling. Thats where.

It rained pretty steadily Saturday and water was coming into the house from the bad flashing around the chimney. I woke up that morning to the sound of water dripping from the ceiling about a foot in front of the fireplace. Perfect way to start off your day. I threw a bucket under the drip and took a look at the wall above the fireplace. Water had collected into pockets behind the pain and had started leaking down onto the mantle.

I grabbed a 3in. scraper from the coffee table (one's always within reach at my place) and used it to drain the water from these pockets behind the paint. That lead to pulling out a piece of drenched drywall tape, then to just scraping off all of the wet joint compound and crumbling plaster. This photo just about illustrates how easily it all fell off; that's the 3in scraper under there!

This is what I'm left with:

Just about turns your stomach, huh? I wish you could smell it. Imagine old, deteriorating plaster and joint compound soaked again and again with rainwater. It smells similar to a very damp basement. But in this case the basement smell is coming from the living room where I sleep. I'll be calling the roofing company tomorrow.

It's funny this never came up in the house inspection. Maybe I'll give him a call too.