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I'll be honest -- "I can fix it" are words that my wife came to dread during our first couple of years in the house. I found little projects that needed doing around here -- and they did not come out nearly so well as we would have liked them to. Indeed, one of them led to a rather expensive visit from a locksmith to clean up after the mess I made within days of moving into the house.

It seemed like an easy enough task -- change a couple of door locks so that the keys were the same and we were sure that the previous owners and their family/friends didn't have keys still floating around. Its not like they were bad folks or anything like that, but just a desire for a sense of security.

Well, I headed over to Big Orange Cube for a a set of door knobs and locks that would be keyed to a single key. I found what I wanted easily enough, and immediately got to work on the project when got home. Naturally, I decided to start with the front door. I removed the old knob and lock and began to place the new one. But being the butter-fingered soul that I am, I dropped the assembly, which split into a couple parts. I simply put the thing back together and continued.

Unfortunately, nothing would line up. If the lock mechanism was in place, I couldn't screw the door knobs together, and the door would not latch if I did get them to screw together. I had damaged the entire assembly when I dropped it -- and had broken the old assembly removing it (it was 25 years old, and not in good shape). And what on earth are you going to do on a Friday night at 7:00 pm when you have no working lock on the front door? Call a locksmith, who ended up charging me the night-and-weekend rate.

My later projects have become more successful as I've gotten more experience. It also helps that I've acquired a few resources to help me better understand how to do the tasks before me. Knowledge is power, so now I can build bookshelf or fix a door, or even tile or drywall if I need to. And I've found websites that can supply me with plans and tips to make sure I'm prepared for anything that might face me in the course of my future projects, like DoItYourself.com. Check them out before you begin your next project.

Posted by: Greg at 10:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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