Now here is a unique and unusual door handle! It doubles as a bell, although the sound it makes is a little piercing … and the door owners hereby absolve themselves of any and all liabilities arising from injury from using said door bell.
Yyaaaaooooowww!
Photo credits: Door Sitter by Margaret Nissen
Yes, by the end of this blog you will berate me for it being totally irrelevant to door knobs … but as with the Door County Fish Boil post, how could we resist with a title like this?!The title is actually courtesy of West Seattle blog, where a lady named Deana wrote in to let them know about her noteless-kob and tree story. She came home on April Fool’s Day to find a tree had been planted in her nature strip (‘parking strip’ in the States). Shock, horror! That’s just disgusting and wrong. Whoever had the idea of letting trees out in public? ;-)
Anyway, she managed to find a flag half a block down, stating that the Department of Transportation had planted the tree, and providing a phone number , web address and email contact. She emailed the following to the Department:
“A tree was planted on my parking strip on April 1st 2008 WITHOUT my permission. I would like the tree removed immediately and the grass replanted. I refuse to care for the tree and do not appreciate it being planted without my knowledge. Please call me as soon as possible and please let me know how soon this will be taken care of.
Thanks in advance.” (more…)
Thank you to Traditional Homes & Interiors Magazine for featuring our company in their July issue.
We love old stuff here at Architectural Classics. We may have told you that once or twice! We also think, though, that new stuff can be just as exciting … especially if that new stuff is old stuff. Confused? Well, I’m actually talking about doing period style renovations. Ah, it all makes sense now!!
This will be the first of a series of articles on renovating your period style home – some random information gems, tips and hints, and guidelines. This week, as is often the case in life, we look at why sometimes to get something, you have to go back to nothing. Or, as a wise old Muppet in ‘The Labyrinth’ once said, “My dear, the way forward is sometimes the way back” … followed immediately by the reply from his hat “Would you listen to that rubbish!”.
The reason that they way forward is sometimes the way back, is that you’ll most likely have to strip out your period style home to some degree before you can start on the decorating. Boring, I know, but necessary. And no matter how boring, it is definitely a task deserving of attention and care! Today we are looking at taking out walls and windows.
If you have bought a home built in a period style, or if you’ve been lucky enough to find a home built in an actual period (!), you may have to take out some architectural elements, or add some, for consistency of style. The first thing you’ll need to do is determine either what style your house is, or what style you want it to be. One of our previous sites of the month - has a very comprehensive guide to period styles, giving you information on just about everything, from structural elements like floors, walls and mouldings, to decorative elements like colour schemes, fabrics and furnishings. Highly recommended, and if you don’t get anything useful or in-depth enough out of here, it is at least a good starting point for a Wikipedia search!
Go through your house with the style guidelines in mind, and note what is different in your case to usual. If a feature belongs to a later period style (for example, your Georgian house might have some decidedly Victorian doors, or have had its sash windows replaced with a different or newer type of window), add it to the ‘out with the old’ list.
Before you even lay hand on a tool though, get out a pencil and paper (and a hardhat if you like, to make yourself feel very architect-ish and important!). Create a site plan that notes the position of every important feature of a room – length and breadth, any odd shapes, ceiling height, window height and dimensions, power points, paneling height, architrave dimensions, skirt height, heating or cooling vents, fixed furniture and plumbing points. Note the direction the door swings, also. You’ll be surprised how often you’ll need this … (more…)
Hanging doors is a tricky job, right? It is often held up as an example of something that is always outsourced to a professional, even for long-term renovators. So, installing a door that is pre-hung should be a piece of cake …
(Ouch! )
[Low feminine growling noise]
(Oh, for f***’s sake!)
(Right, where’s the chain saw?)
Hee hee! Here are a few tips to save you the frustration – it is amusing to read, but not so amusing to experience!
If you’ve bought a pre-hung door already, hopefully you have one that is handed the correct way; that is, it swings the way that you want it to. It is not a hard and fast rule which way a door should swing – just keep in mind that if you install a door to swing back into a wall parallel with it, you can end up with a hole in the wall after anyone in the house has a fit of temper! If you haven’t bought it yet, check and recheck that it swings the right way. So many people get home and say ‘Oh, that’s right, I wanted it to swing to the other left’!
When you have your new door, paint the top and bottom before installing it – this will help prevent warping due to moisture in the air. If you don’t have a color scheme yet, at least lacquer or varnish the top and bottom to prevent moisture getting in.