Bit o’ Electrical Help!
My wife’s friend, Donna, and her husband, Steven, came over tonight.
It turns out my wife had complained to Donna about the lack of good lighting and outlets surrounding the basement laundry area. Donna then drafted Stephen, an electrician, to come over tonight and add in some light fixtures.
Stephen installed two additional light-fixtures in the basement. One fixture has a single electrical outlet, so my wife Terry will now be able to plug her iron into that to do her ironing. Both additional fixtures are now rigged to turn on at the same time that the primary basement light turns on.
Stephen also took a look at our front door knob / lock mechanism. Now, Terry and I had looked at this previously. We had only identified one way to lock it: Use the “skeleton key” (what we’re calling the old-time keys that the previous owners left behind) to lock the deadbolt. However, the deadbolt is offset from the strike-plate somewhat… so that it doesn’t line up and therefore does not lock!
However, Stephen noted that there are two rather odd buttons on the lock mechanism itself, facing the strike plate when the door is closed. Pushing one of these buttons engages the door’s primary lock (not the deadbolt). To be honest, Terry and I hadn’t even NOTICED there WAS a primary lock, since there was no inside mechanism for engaging it!
So, thanks to Stephen and Donna, we now have better work lighting and we now know how to lock our front door more securely!
In one other little tidbit: A few days ago, Terry urged me to find the storm window for the back door’s screen door. I found it down in the basement. However, one of the little plastic tabs that you push in in order to install the storm window was completely broken. So, when I installed the storm window, one corner was basically hanging loosely. Not good. Terry taped it into place as a temporary measure.
I had visited Home Depot and then dutifully reported to my wife that they didn’t sell single replacement storm-panes. It looked like I’d have to borrow from another window somewhere or replace the entire storm door!
But, Terry told Donna and she happens to know of a couple of places that might be able to provide metal versions of the missing plastic push-tab. Terry’s going to handle this little home improvement mission!