My Old House

Well, there’s actually quite a bit of news to relate, so here we go:

 

Buddy, can you spare a spindle?

So about three weeks ago, the front door knob suddenly broke. Actually, the spindle inside the doorknob broke.  I took the knob system apart and studied the spindle.  It wasn’t just a straight shaft, like I expected.  No, instead, the spindle had two halves.  One fit inside the other with a sort of ball-and-socket system.  Only whatever it was about the socket that was suppossed to prevent the ball-half from popping out was worn away.

So, I immediately started Googling for spindles.  I found out that this part was called a “swivel spindle”.  The idea is that the outside-facing half could remain locked, while you, on the inside, could still turn the knob.

I found such a spindle on a website, but this replacement part was a modern version.  The square-shafted spindle was actually threaded so as to screw into the knob… whereas the original version had no such threads.  Instead, it had a few threaded holes drilled into each end.  You then used a screw to hold the doorknob onto the shaft.

Well, thinking I could make the modern version work, I ordered it.  But once I got it here, I realized that there was no threading on the actual hole inside the doorknob.  So you couldn’t just stick a screw into the knob and expect it to stay tight / flush with the shaft.

Back to square one.

I posted on the Yahoo FixerUppers forum, which I still am a member of.  One person recommended I drill my own holes into the modern shaft, but I didn’t have the equipment to do that.  That person then recommended I visit a local locksmith.

Well, just east of the Independence Square is a rather large locksmith shop.  So I stopped there on my day off.  The older gentleman behind the counter immediately brought out a couple of shoeboxes of old spindles and started going through them.  But he couldn’t find a part that was the right size and had threaded holes in the shaft.  He had his son take a look at my original… to which the son said “Man… is that OLD !”  After a few minutes, the son offered to switch me over to a modern knob, but I really wanted to stick with the original knobs, which I still had, of course.

So, I went home and posted a “Wanted” ad on Ebay.  Yes, a lot of people don’t realize this, but you can post a “Wanted” ad… to which sellers could then create and link their own auctions to it (so Ebay could still make their cut).  However, after over a week, there were still no responses.

I posted my dilemna on an internal discussion board at my day-job.  People there suggested two places:  The Habitat for Humanity “Restore” store, which was only a couple of miles north of my house…. and Architectural Salvage, a store just south of downtown Kansas City.

I went to the Restore, but after two minutes in the place, one could tell I wasn’t going to find what I wanted here.  This was obviously a place where you would find MODERN, second-hand stuff for houses: cabinets, sinks, toilets, doors, etc.  When somebody nearby me asked one of the sales girls if they had any doorknobs, the sales girl indicated that all such knobs would be already-attached to the doors they were selling.

So, that left me with the Architectural Salvage store, a store that I had passed by a couple of times in previous years, but had never gone into.  I knew their hours were a bit odd.

Well, it turns out their hours are from 10 AM - 5 PM, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  My wife and I went down there yesterday morning.

We arrived a bit early and were pleasantly surprised when someone spotted us and opened up the doors early! (Personally, I think this is ALWAYS a sign of a good business… unlike the place where I get my hair cut.  Those folks will be there early, sitting around, doing nothing… they’ll see you standing there and won’t budge to open the door one minute early.   But, as I said, the folks at Architectural Salvage were much more eager and helpful than that!)

Once inside, I thought I had died and gone to Ebay!  There were two floors plus a basement FILLED with salvaged old house parts!  They had pillars, floor grates, doors, statuary, sinks, three rooms of old light fixtures, and tons more!  

One of the ladies there looked at my original part and together we quickly came up with two swivel spindles that we believed would work.  It cost me $8 each for them, but that was worth it, because obviously I wasn’t able to find them anywhere else.  Plus, they sold me the screws for them, because I knew that in taking apart the original, I had lost at least one screw. 

So now, thanks to Architectural Salvage, I have fixed my front door and I have a spare spindle for the future!

Plus, as an added bonus, Terry and I now know where to go whenever we want an antique item for the house!  (The only thing is, we had better be prepared to spend big bucks if we want it.  You need at least $150 to get anything substantial there.)

 

Rumors of Tax Breaks in the Future

There was an article in the Independence Examiner a few weeks back.  It was a front-page story.  It talked about the fact that the Midtown Truman Road Corridor renovation project had reached its 10-year anniversary… how successful that project was… and how the Northwest Community Development Corporation was now talking about creating a similar project for the “northwest side of town”.

The Midtown Truman Road Corridor renovation project, as I’m calling it (I don’t know the exact name of the project at the moment, but it’s something very close to this)…. was a project where tax breaks were given to property owners in the area immediately surrounding the Harry Truman Home…. IF they invested money in improving their own properties.

This project was very successful.  Old homes were fixed up.  Some older homes were razed and new ones were built in their place, but the new ones were designed to look like the old American Foursquare style homes (similar somewhat to ours).  I read in the paper that $71 million was invested in just a small area during that project.

Well, the Northwest CDC is now discussing creating a similar project with the city.  Although the article said that the northwest side of town would be the beneficiaries of this project… and although it defined that area to be everything west of Noland and north of 23rd street, it was apparent that this was a “ballpark definition”. 

You could tell from the article that this is all in the early discussion stages.  However, I took note that, since they already had successfully done this whole project just a short distance east of of us, those quoted in the article felt that it wouldn’t take them long to put together a committee to run such a new project.  So, that’s giving me a bit of hope… since we sure could use ANY economic boost to fix up this side of town.

 

Kitchen Light Fixtures installed

Ack!  I’m sorry, I don’t have photos of this yet… but as the final part of my wife’s kitchen remodeling project, she ordered two new light fixtures.  It took something like 8 weeks for them to arrive.  And I took another two weeks to getting around to installing them.  But basically, she now has a sort of pendant-style light hanging down over the kitchen sink, plus a larger three-light-unit hanging down, centered with the kitchen window that faces outwards towards the back of the property / the garage.

I’ll try to get some photos and post them soon.  They look good, but I would have preferred actual antique fixtures.

 

Asbestos Siding Progress

Summer heat is slowing down the process of removing the old asbestos siding.  My father-in-law and I did about 2/3rds of the south side of the house one morning, but because of the heat, we quit by 11:15 AM.

He came back one day while I was at work and basically pulled anything at ground level on the north side of the house.  And my wife Terry went out onto the sun porch on the rear of the house on one particularly cool day (when I was working)… and pulled off all of the siding up there.

So that leaves me with:

a) The entire north side of the house, from the second floor on up.

b) One-third of the south side of the house, from the second floor on up.

c)  A few really high pieces to pull on the front of the house… and on the south side of the house.

d)  A little bit on the front porch roof itself.

I’ve been bagging everything in black plastic contractors garbage bags… and I’ve been setting them on the side of the garage until we get finished.  Then, I was planning on contacting the local trash companies and seeing who’d charge what to haul this stuff off and dispose of it.   A friend of my wife’s told me last night that if you make an appointment, you can dump this stuff for free at some Kansas City waste center down off of Front Street.  I asked why they called Kansas City and not Independence… and she said that they DID call Independence… and Independence referred them to Kansas City.

A free way to get rid of this stuff would be wonderful, but I honestly doubt that will happen, given how heavy this stuff is and the fact that it is asbestos we’re talking about.

 

Terry’s still very doubtful that we’ll be able to get any further work done on the house exterior this year.  She honestly doesn’t see where we’ll be able to pay to have any wood restoration or priming done.  And, to be honest, if I were to look at our checkbook right now, I would have to agree with her.

But I’m not working off of written numbers… or money I can see.  I’m working on faith on this one.  This is something we’re suppossed to do.  I can just feel it.   She has her doubts, quite understandably.  Some days, I doubt it too.  But I trust it far more often.

Ha!  Final story to end things today:

The neighbor lady next door, Vicki, apparently told my wife that the former owners were driving by and apparently saw Vicki working outside… and stopped to talk.  They asked if we had termites !!   They were wondering just why the heck we were tearing the asbestos siding off !

Now, my wife’s already very upset at how UGLY the house looks right now (I’ll have to post some photos).  But I just had to laugh at this!

I realize that there are a lot of people who think totally different than I do.  But that still makes me wonder in amazement why some folks don’t seem to see what I see in this old house!  No, it’s more general than that.  It’s not specifically this old house.  Some people seem to prefer asbestos siding… or even modern vinyl siding… to the original wood clapboard.  I guess they just don’t see the glory in the old ways.

I went to one estate sale this week in a modern condo.  The floor and stairs there squeaked almost as much as the ones in our old house do !!  

With an old house, yes, you get additional maintenance that is a bit more trouble and a bit more costly.  But you’ll be amazed at just what DOESN’T go wrong.  You’ll be amazed at what LASTS AND LASTS without a lick of trouble!  And you get all this CHARACTER !!

I put on some classical music throughout the house, pour some coffee, and even as I sit here typing on my laptop, I find the old place enchanting!  There is power in the wood beams here.  Peace reigns when I’m on the front porch.  There’s timelessness in the old closets and on the doorknobs.

This is a terrific house to relax in.

 

Thanks for stopping by and reading all this today!

 

-= Dave =-