This Old House February 2008 issue

Where to begin........

The broken dryer - that's not really a house issue, since it's a dryer we rescued from our last landlord's basement.

The burst pipe - that's more interesting, but not a surprise, since the pipes under the sink had been freezing up every time we had a sub-zero windy day. Just a matter of time before they broke.

Although the combo of the two was funny, since it led to me feeling like a college kid as I went to the in-laws this morning to use their shower and drop off a load of laundry.

I like the more humorous break-downs, like locking myself out of the bathroom, as I did tonight.

Here's the deal. This is the latch/doorknob for our only bathroom as seen from the inside....

Pushing down on a the exterior button raises the L-shaped piece in the center, which then raises the horizontal bar so you can get in. The horizontal bar pivots where it's attached to the small section on the far left.

Unfortunately, the screw on the far left sometimes gets loose. Especially when we have company who aren't used to the latch and get rough with it. When the pivot point gets loose, the horizontal bar doesn't lift on the right-hand side, and it's impossible to get the door open. When my aunt and uncle visited this summer, I had to get Nathan to crawl through the window to open the door. And let me just say that he wasn't too bright about following directions, since he thought I just wanted him to unlock the door, and then crawled back out the window before opening it properly.

I was not about to drag him out of bed and into the 11 degree, snowy night. Unscrewing the latch from the outside and vigorously rattling a screwdriver around eventually got the horizontal bar lifted. I just wish I knew a permanent fix to this. I tighten the screw every few weeks, but obviously I was too late this time. And I'm trying to imagine how people have been using this door for a hundred years and not had this problem as constantly as we have. (I think the door was once an exterior exit from the house, and the hardware and cut-out for the latch certainly look authentic.)

Taking all the hardware off has shown me areas where the wood is worn down, which I think may be causing too much stress on the hardware which is loosening the screw. Not sure if there's a way to fix it without removing the latch completely. And since I'd like one room in the house where I can get privacy, that really isn't an option.