After 120 Years, Another First!

For the first time in what must have been 120 years (since the 1888-90 remodel), all the doors in the master bedroom actually close AND latch! When we bought this place, none of the doors would close. The assumption was that the layers of paint were way too thick to permit the doors to close. After stripping and finishing the doors, using the original hinges in their original locations and hanging the doors, they still would not close.
I had to plane and sand a little off the top just to get them all to close. I then rubbed bar soap on the top of the doors to prevent sticking and on these two shellacked doors I had to raise the strike plates slightly in order to get the doors to latch shut. I can't believe these doors never closed properly. I guess the Volkenand family didn't mind the doors not closing and after 1954 this was the front room of a second floor apartment adjoining the hall and a kitchen so closing doors wasn't important either.



This is the closet door. It wasn't worth the time it was taking to get the paint stripped off it. The top three coats came off easily with a heat gun so I left the original layer intact and sanded the surface before painting it. This is the same closet that took me 5 hours to wire in a switch and a light so that no cable is visible. I hate to think what an electrician would have charged to put a light in this closet. Of course it would likely have required the use of exterior metal track to put the wires in and not having to pull up any floor boards which is no fun at all!.