... this knob, it is tarnished, and full of holes.
[the travesty of Joel Schumacher aside]
I spend much of the 4 hours of free time last night replacing the knobs within my house. These knobs that were replaced could very well be the original knobs installed when the house was first erected (circa mid-1950's)
I (or we, rather) would not have been such snobs about the knobs except for the fact that they were indeed brass, and very dull and very dirty looking...
[Note: we have nothing against brass, but we are more inclined towards silver rather than gold, so we went with the satin polished chrome instead.]
Replacing door knobs is quite simple. I have done it on numerous occasions. But due to the age of the door knobs in question, the task was sorely underestimated.
You see, to install a door knob you require several things:
- the door
- the door knob assembly
- Cross-bore, edge-bore, and latch bore.
- the doorframe
- tools
The door, having already been installed, I thought it would be the simple replacement of the door knob assembly.
but noooooooo.
Since the original knobs were old school, the cross bolt screwed directly into the knob, eliminating the need to secure the back-plates of the two sides to each other. (I guess you can save on metal doing it this way) The old cross bolt only required a three-quarter inch cross-bore, whereas the new knobs require a 2-1/8 inch cross-bore.
Again, simple enough...
except for, not really.
The drill bit that used to create a 2-1/8 inch cross bore resembles a metal cup with teeth that has a drill bit stickin through the center. That center drill bit is used to guide the cup so that you can accurately determine the center of the large hole you are about to put in a perfectly fine piece of wood.
The problem is that the guiding bit is only one-half an inch.
One-quarter of an inch never looked so big.
my first attempt at boring the hole resulted a very scratched up door. I could not center the stupid drill very easily, so the drill kept getting pushed out of placed. Think etch-a-sketch... [whoa... I hope that did not date me]
the first one took a
long time... after that, I figured out how to grind out a groove and use that as a guide, although it was not quite as accurate as the center drill bit would have been.
One thing that kept annoying me though, was friction. Granted, that friction accounts for the fact that my drill bits remain in place in the drill, but it also added to the amount of time required as well as snapping one of my drill bits in half. (that could have been just shoddy craftsmanship though...)
In any case, the back-plates for the replacement knobs were (thankfully) 2-1/4 inches in diameter, which was sufficient enough to cover any and all of the miscalculations I might have made.
... ... ...
so, that must have been incredibly stimulating for you. I hope this edition of "This Old House with Ryan" has been enjoyable for you as it was for me!
Next week: Painting and Trim Replacement! :-P
Good bye, and thanks for reading!
so yeah, I will be home for the next two weeks... this week because of my car being on the blink, and next week, because there is an actual work reason.
the problem with this is that I have left most of my work clothes up in midland...
and my charger for my electric toothbrush...
and my vouchers for free pizza...
... ... ...
this means two things... I will have to either buy clothes, or I will have to eat 3-4 hours to get everything from my apartment...
money is tight, but time is such a valuable commodity.
so I am faced with a dilemna because
1. I do not have a car.
2. I do not have the time during the week
3. Lorie will be in town this weekend
... ... ...
so the best solution will probably be for me to get two or three slacks or khakis, and four shirts and I should be able to hold down the two weeks with no problem.
which will mean I will have to use a regular toothbrush to adhere to my dental responsibilities the moment my electric one dies...
on top of that, there is the unknown, but presumably large, sum for the correction of the cause of the illumination of the check engine light on my suv...
... ... ...
alas, the horror that is my life...
faced with the deep, life-altering issues of no clothes, no car, and no electric toothbrush...
oh, and no free pizza...
:-P
again, I must impart to you the degree of increased satsifcation after a period of abstaining from something...
I say "again", because I do not remember if I have previously mentioned this piece of knowledge, so I am just covering my bases...
This knowledge that I do not remember having previously mentioned should also be quite familiar to you, as it is an adage that has been frequently employeed in situations similar to mine.
I have been thrown back into an instance where I must fend for myself and - *gasp* - cook...
Actually, I am not forced to cook, but after the first week of eating out all the time, I figured I would try to save myself some money and go grocery shopping and actually use the other aspects of the kitchen in my apartment aside from the microwave and fridge.
what a concept.
In any case, I am rather decent in the kitchen given a modicum of initiative (or a large enough threat), but because I do not enjoy applying more effort for myself than necessary, my grocery list (and thus my prep time) was as minimalist as you could get. V8 Splash (because I need other nutrients besides protien and starch), multigrain bread, and something to eat with the bread... this could be sloppy joe, ravioli, lunchmeats and cheese, beefstew, and fishsticks...
this amounts to less than $20 for the whole week. granted the selection is somewhat sparse, but hey, I am easy.
so for under the amount of a single day's per diem, I am able to sustain myself for a week.
but at what cost (besides the $20)?
I have not had any regular rice in about a month... I had some sushi, but it was mainly nigiri, so, really, not that much rice. Plus, sushi fulfills a different requirement in my appetite than white rice or fried rice...
my mother suggested that I bring a rice cooker up to Midland, but that would necessitate my cooking something that takes longer than five minutes. And I, of course, do not have the presence of mind to cook something a day in advanced so that I will have it for the next day...
you know... now that I actually say it (although I am actually typing it), that seems like such a good idea...
yeah, so to make a long story short (too, late) I had rice today...
it was great...
with honey glazed walnut shrimp, and almond chicken - although the almond chicken was not so great...
and that is it!
but now that I have had a taste, I think I will require more so that this never happens again...
so I might actually cook rice this week, being that I am home for the next two weeks...
my car's check engine light blinked on during my commute home for the weekend from Midland...
so it will be brought into the shop, posthaste...
