Locks and Panes (Day 573)

We've been punching down through the list this week, mainly on small items interspersed with unpacking boxes. Took a whack at cleaning up the garage but I didn't make any headway except to extricate a trailer full of cardboard boxes and pieces. It was time to say good goodbye to the old cardboard. I had previously bought a boatload of RamBoard (1/16" high density paper) for the floors, and will use it upstairs for carpeting during the rest of our construction.

Decided it was time to get some handles on the interior doors. We'd bought about 2o Emtek Arts & Crafts lever sets for the house and they'll look great with the Craftsman theme we have going. They aren't cheap; about $60-55 a set depending on type (privacy, passage, or dummy). After I put in a couple it became pretty routine and I managed to install 10 in an 6 hr day (it was Memorial Day, so we went out to lunch).

All the doors came pre-drilled for the locks. That means they have drilled a 1" diameter hole for the locking cylinder and a 2 1/8" hole for the lever assembly. The lock sets should go right in except the door company always errs on the small side for the cover plate and striker plate. So you need to chisel it a bit deeper (a real 1/8") and sometimes larger. That makes the 15-minute install take about 45 minutes. Still, 10 down and another 10 to do in the to-be-painted doors.

I was working in the back corner of the house and Nancy causally mentioned that I was in the hall of doors. Didn't realize that the little hallway (5' x 8') has 5 doors surrounding it. Two to the stairs (up/down) one to the pantry, one outside, and one to the den. That would give Alice an anxiety attack in her little Wonderland.