door hardware

Even 120 year old rimsets, knobs and hinges still have a lot of life in them. The set above has a broken throw-bolt but the springs, latch and privacy lock work just fine after a good cleaning with Navel Jelly, WD 40 and a wire brush. That is some serious Wabi Sabi. How many thousands of hands have held these knobs? The crystal knobset came from a house remodel in Amarillo, the porcelain and steel sets are originals from Birdie's house and the bakelite lever was a donation from cousin Terry. All will have a new life here in the house. Several years worth of collecting have yielded enough antique hardware for all the interior doors. Rosettes, keyhole covers, rimsets, knobs and matching butt hinges. The panel doors from Birdie's house are only 1-1/8" thick but are all flat and straight. Some have to be completely knocked apart to reinforce joints and add dutchman repairs from old hardware scars. All will simply be sanded smooth and waxed to finish. The original paint will be retained and the years of worn rounded edges are kept and treasured like a pair of comfortably worn jeans. 

old skool analog wall clock

I stopped wearing a watch years ago since you can't seem to escape a digital clock somewhere nearby either on the dashboard, computer screen, cellphone, vcr, microwave, or passing bank sign. I also found that without the clock crutch on your wrist your internal body clock will fine tune itself. I can usually guesstimate within 30 minutes what time it is by instinct (until daylight savings time throws me off for a few weeks). But with the new TV without a clock and deletion of the ubiquitous VCR we suddenly found ourselves often wondering what time it was a little more accurately for homeschooling. I've always been a fan of George Nelson atomic clocks, especially the skeletal but mostly commercial built-in types with the floating hour markers mounted directly to the wall. Obviously; those require preplanning in a "normal" house to have access to the clockworks inside the wall. Solid salvaged board walls in the new house afforded access to both sides of the living room wall for an internal movement. All that was required is a small flush mounted access door held by a single screw on the bedroom side to get to the batteries. Hobby Lobby provided an inexpensive movement with tacky traditional hands but voila'; they also had longer straight hands in brass that only required a quick coat of white spray paint. They contrast cleanly with the weathered wood background, carefully preserved graffiti and all. Small wooden hobby spheres and larger split spheres work great as hour and 5 minute markers ala' the radiant spheres of Nelson's original. I laid out a template on the iMac for accurate placement of the hour markers about 14" across. I then taped it to the wall in a visible spot from all over the living room and kitchen, tapped the locations with a nail set and drilled a small pilot hole "dent" to glue the beads into place. We have mid century modern accents throughout our collection of stuff so the new clock seems right at home, even rusticated as it is, with the large 60's light globe pendants salvaged from an old church remodel and a pair of danish bent plywood backed side chairs from the 50's bought at auction.