Opening Doors

When we first looked at the farmhouse, one of the things we really liked is that it still had a lot of the old fixtures and detailing, including the door hardware. The downside to this was that this door, going from the front porch into the parlor, was unopenable. We weren't sure if the door was just totally jammed shut, or if it was locked using the skeleton key (which we didn't have anyway).

Antique security system: the doors just don't open.

Then, this summer, we discovered that Chris's father had a whole bunch of skeleton keys that he'd picked up over the years. This made the strategy of randomly trying keys to see if they'd fit the lock seem a bit more reasonable -- or at least less like we'd have to start by purchasing a whole bunch of keys that probably wouldn't work. So, off I went, keys in hand.

I started out trying all the keys, but it seemed like there was potentially some issue with the lock mechanism itself -- a few keys felt like they were trying to push against something, but the lock wouldn't budge. So, I decided to go back to the option of brute force, just in case that worked. It wasn't an especially humid day, which was good, because it turned out that the answer to "why doesn't the door open?" was just that it was swollen (and a little bit painted) shut. A little finessing and scraping, and then some mighty shoving, got the door open.

Probably the first time in at least 15 years this door has been open.

Now the door was open... which put the pressure on to find a way to be able to lock it again before I went home. Fortunately, with the door open, I was able to take out the lock and discover why it wouldn't work: it was full of dirt and rust.

Ewww.

This was a problem for WD-40. I had that. In the end, the entire lock had to be taken apart, cleaned, lubed up, and put back together... at which point, it turned out that one of the keys in the Random Bag O' Keys actually did fit our lock!

With this success under my belt, I took apart and cleaned the lock on the door from the porch into the kitchen -- it was also disgusting inside, and the same skeleton key fitted that lock. In fact, the same key also opened our interior doors, like the door to the upstairs. There's still a bit of work to do on these -- the striker plates don't line up well with the door mechanisms (not sure why... are these door handles actually replacements?) and the doors still need some planing before they'll open well during the worst of summer heat and humidity, but we now officially have keys to the house!