Getting a handle on things

Just a heads-up that this won't be the most interesting post ever, or even that noteworthy. But since I'm using my blog to showcase the things we are doing around our house recently, I figure it might be worth a mention.

Recently one of our inside door handles started to malfunction.  Specifically, it would not open after the door was closed.  This handle is attached to a fairly nonessential door that separates an entryway in our house from the laundry room, so if the door didn't work correctly it was not going to be the most challenging of home ownership issues.  Still, we did want to do something about it, so I took the handle apart, squirted some Liquid Wrench Silicone Spray (one of my favorite substances to have around) into various crevices, put the thing back together, and it worked just fine.  Problem solved!

Except not really.  A week later the handle was even worse, and wouldn't turn at all.  So I took it apart once again and discovered that the pin mechanism (the thing that retracts into the door when you turn the handle) was broken.  I have no idea how this happened, but the plastic build told me that poor craftsmanship could have been the culprit.  In any case it was not repairable, so we went to Lowe's and picked up another handle which I installed last night.  It's kind of a burnished bronze finish, which sure beats the faux gold finish on the previous handle, and we are now considering buying more of these handles to replace other doors just because they look so good.

Our door, sans handle.

The old broken handle, and our new replacement handle. Yay!

Our door, with handle. (Like I said, this was not going to be an especially exciting post, folks)

The old-style handle on the left, and our fancy-pants new handle on the right. Whee!