Door Knob Lifesaver!

I managed to remove the handle to the exterior door in the laundry room today.  I was going to replace it this morning, but I ran into a hiccup - the plate on the door wouldn't come off!  There is a little thing that moved, but I pushed it in and nothing happened.  Given my propensity to exert too much force on things (and break them), I decided to just hold off for a bit to Google this situation.

I came across a blog that had a perfect description of what I needed!  I'm a bit anxious to go home and try it.  Maybe at lunch...

How to Remove a Door knob that has no screws.

I'm trying to just put something in that's newer... and works.  I think I picked up something like this:

Staining the Shelf Dowels

I let the Liquid Nails dry for a few days, since it's been pretty moist around here.  The fog's been taking over everything like the blob.  I smacked the dowels in different directions just to make sure it was in there (if it was loose, I might as well knock it out now, right?)  Nothing moved, so I moved on to staining.  

I picked this up from Home Depot yesterday.  It was actually MORE expensive than it is on Amazon.  The directions say to make sure the wood's clean and free of oils, dirt, etc.  I sanded the dowels lightly with some 200 grit sand paper.  Rough, I know.  I then used a utility knife to scrape off the extra Liquid Nails on the bottom shelf.  Very little came off, so I figured the next two should be fine.  

I tore an old wife beater in half and rolled it up.  I dipped it into the stain, then started on the top dowel.  Wiping with the grain, I went all the way around the dowel, top to bottom, then moved down a shelf.  It took about 5 minutes to register that this stuff REALLY smells.  I reached over and opened the backyard door.  

With the stain, here's how the dowel looked after two applications.

And here's the shelf with all three!

The color ending up matching really well.  I think to seal it, I have to get the clear minwax varnish and apply to seal the wood.  It's nus that this tiny can is twice the price of the stain.  

Comcast!

Or rather, XFINITY!  Bright and early this morning, the cable guy showed up.  Before 8 AM, I had cable and internet working!

Living Room Shelves

Went to Uncle Bill's house today to cut the shelves!  I was pretty excited.  It took about 15 minutes, and the shelves looked great.  We notched the edges in the front so the front would be flush with the shelf face.

When we finally got back into the house, I put the shelves up, and they fit perfectly!  Sweeeet!

One question, though... Should I add a third shelf?

Madre de Dios...

I guess nothing really can just work at this place, can it?  Friday night, I returned home, and my key turned in the lock, but it wouldn't open the door.  WTF??  Yesenia and Sandra were upstairs watching movies, so Yesenia came down and opened the door.  With the door opened, I was able to turn the lock.  Cool.  Must've been a fluke, right?  WRONG.

This morning, Sandra and I stepped out to go run errands. She forgot something inside, so we turned around (from the front steps) and put the key in the hole.  Turn... then stuck.  What?!  Again... Turn, then stuck!  GREAT!  The freakin lock's busted!  And to boot, there's NO other way inside!  I called Crownlock to come and open the door.  The guy said he was pretty busy and it' be a while.  That's cool.  I figured we'd go to Uncle Bill's and cut the shelving then meet him back at the house, right?  It all worked out, we met him up around 4:30 PM.  He came in and spent a good 25 - 30 minutes trying to open the door.  It took a LONG time, but he eventually got it.  With the door open, the key turned the lock to open and close it.  Great.  Now we can't even trouble shoot it!

He removed the lock completely and began to look at the insides.  I looked over and it was all rusted!  The thing wasn't moving internally because it was getting stuck on some rusted parts!  Nice.  Now to get a permanent fix, I have to buy a new front door lock...

Leveling out the Shelves

The lower shelves that we got for the kitchen stove area were sagging, so I decided to get some 1 inch dowels to support and level off the ends.  I picked up a miter box and saw from Discount Builders to cut the dowels since my current hand saw was getting really dull.  .


I measured the height of each shelf from the edge where they connected to the vertical piece of wood.  I think they were all 9 3/8 inches or so.  This saw was a bit different than the previous miter saw.  It only cut in one direction.  The two directional one makes a HUGE difference, if anyone else is looking to buy.

Anywho, I but each one, then used painters tape to mask around the base of the dowels.  I applied the Liquid Nails to the ends of the dowels, then lifted the above shelf to place the dowel down.  I wiped the excess glue from the top and bottom, but figured I'd clean the rest of it later.  With a level, I checked to make sure all dowels were square to the shelf and the shelves were all level.  I had some wiggle room time, so I wanted to make sure everything looked good.

All in all, this took less than an hour.  I guess I'm getting better at this kind of stuff!