New Doorknob on our Bathroom Door

I went to the store today and bought a new doorknob. Why just a doorknob when we are not redoing the bathroom for at least another year? Because you can not close the door fully and hope to leave the bathroom without a fight. The doorknob would stick and would not fully turn so you'd be stuck turning it right and left until it finally gave up and let you out.

So our existing doorknob saw it's final minutes coming... 

...and couldn't help but put up one more fight. The existing doorknob had a cover to keep the screws hidden and I'm sure made it look nice when it was first installed. Now, this just made removing it a pain because we couldn't get at the screws with a screwdriver. (Later I found a tool that could have helped at this stage.) I had to call Jeff in as his nickname when it comes to DIY is Mr. Destructo. You want it taken apart, Jeff will get it apart in seconds. Even my Dad believes in this name as last summer Jeff helped him take the pool in my parents deck apart - the kids were grown and moved out and they didn't really use it so they had decided to get rid of it. It took Jeff and my Dad maybe an hour including clean up. The part that took the longest was carefully removing the liner as there was still water in it that the pump could not get to and remove.

So, Mr. Destructo had at the doorknob and in minutes, there was a hole in the door, but the hole I had been looking for.

I took a damp paper towel to the hole to try and clean up the black dust that had gathered in the hole and then washed my hands as it had gotten on me from trying to take the doorknob off.

 The picture above right best shows the color I chose - brushed nickel. And below is the tool that could have helped take the original knob off and helped put the new one on. I found it when I went through our tool box for a phillips screwdriver to put the new doorknob in because I had a flat screwdriver for the removal of the original doorknob. It allowed me to get into the tight area between the knob and the, well what I'll call the guard of the knob - that part that goes against the door.

I already tested the knob after telling Jeff that if he heard me screaming he should break down the door. Thankfully that wasn't necessary. So if anyone needs to use the restroom while over at our house, feel free to shut the door fully and completely, and not worry about getting stuck in the bathroom.

Vacation is Over

Before we went on vacation we had our French Doors installed. They had to make some adjustments to the opening, so we have some paint touch ups but we already have some touch ups to do elsewhere in the room so, no biggy. I think the doors look really sweet. Here they are from the inside:

 

And here they are from the outside:

 We didn't have much time to enjoy them before taking a vacation up to my parents cottage. As part of our tradition in puzzling, I finished the puzzle that was in progress.

I started another one but didn't get very far. We'll have to see if we can make it up to finish or as I was having sooo much fun trying to figure out the border of the puzzle, will it be put back in the box before it's finished?

We went fishing but only caught Pike, Jeff caught three and I caught two. When we were tying up the boat, our dogs decided to take a swim. One minute they are sitting at the end of the dock, we're putting stuff back under seats, I look back to the dock at the same time Jeff calls for AJ. Where was AJ? Swimming to the end of the dock and starting to come around the boat. We get him back to land when Lucky starts going under the boat (it's a pontoon boat). So Jeff took them back and got them settled at the cottage while I continued covering the boat and then he came back to help me finish and take the rest of the items we had brought (tackle box, fishing poles, etc.) back to the cottage.

The dogs had a great time while we fished, they were going between Jeff and me wondering what the flip flopping things were that we were bringing out of the water are and who was going to bring the next one to the boat. They used up so much energy that we decided to take the next day easy, I think the dogs enjoyed themselves though. They certainly made themselves comfortable.

 

We did come home unexpectedly as AJ got sick. So we did not have a chance to go swimming or take the boat out again so that we could go fishing and I could try to catch up to Jeff's fish count, but it was a great and much needed vacation none the less. Unfortunately it's back to the office for me tomorrow. I'm almost looking forward to it...almost.

More Weeding

So, this weekend had 2 major projects. One was for my fiance's work. They are participating in a company volleyball tournament tomorrow. They were going to have shirts professionally made but...that fell through. Instead, they ordered the shirts and then Jeff and I for the first time in our lives, figured out iron on numbers and fabric markers. I ironed on all the numbers, then we stenciled on the names for each shirt. It was a learning experience.

The other project was weeding the garden. Since we still haven't finalized our garden layout and what plants we would like, I haven't been too concerned with keeping up the garden. But the tall grasses and trees that have started to grow have gotten a little out of hand. So, my goal is each week to fill our 32 gallon trash can that we use for compost. This week I had no problem doing so. I first weeded the smallest flower bed we have on the side of our house which faces the main road in and out of the neighborhood. This filled the can 3/4 of the way. Then, I got busy finishing what my mother started along the fence.

The fence looks nice now. And since I did this, I was able to leave the white flowers that in the yard are weeds but a few were working their way up the fence and I realized I liked how it looked.

After weeding though, I think I need to look at garden centers and nurseries for some vine plants. The white flowers are few and far between. I think right now we have one tall one, and two or three that are only a few spaces up so you can't even tell they are there. So I've added more plants to the list of decisions that need to be made.