Ta-da! The Door Hardware Is Complete!
Several doors have returned to the Cross House since I purchased it in 2014, and now only one door is missing: to the second-floor main bath. The bath was converted into a kitchen in 1929 but when was the door removed? I gave up thinking it would magically return to the house so Dr. Doug is making a new one. But it will need the right hardware!
All my interior doors have the hardware as seen in Fig. 2. What I would give for Fig. 3!
The Austerlitz door plates came in a variety of sizes. The largest size (10-3/4) are only on my vestibule doors. Most of my interior door plates are 10-3/8. The closet doors are 9-1/4. Before I understood this, a few years ago I purchased a pair of door plates online but upon their arrival they proved tiny! These are the 6-1/4-inch plates!
The new door will need a pair of door plates and a knob. The other day I found this knob set just sitting in the butler’s pantry. Why was it there, for I keep all the hardware bits in the basement? Where did it come from? No matter, for I realized that I did, in fact, have a knob set for the new door!
Now all I needed was a pair of door plates. Thanks to the ever-intrepid Cody, I was steered to this set on eBay. The seller confirmed their size at 10-3/8 and the set is now mine. Thanks, Cody!
To my astonishment and great pleasure, this means I can announce to all that the Cross House no longer lacks doors, and nor door hardware! My excitement is considerable.
This wonderful news though is mitigated by many many lost window pulls, like two dozen. Drat! I suspect the previous owner, Bob, might have these in a box somewhere so, in time, they may perhaps be discovered.
UPDATE: Oops. I still need two doorknobs.
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This IS exciting! Maybe the butlers pantry is a time portal. go stand in there and recite all your wishes. Ha! What wonderful progress you are making!
I was thinking the exact same myself!
It would be remarkable if you came into the butler’s pantry one day and found the missing door standing there like the monolith in 2001 a Space Odyssey. I’m convinced that one night you’re going to meet up with Mrs. Cross on the stair landing and she’s going to thank you for your kind attention to her house! I can’t wait to read that story!
Reading about your attentive detailed restoration helps mitigate some of the horror and depression that comes over me when I see the before/after remodels on OHD and other places, and when I see the beautiful houses in my hometown that are being knocked over like dominos so that McMansions can be built in their place. Thank God for people like you, Ross. Merry Christmas!
I fully understand your horror, Bethany!
BIG hug!
That is great news! Finding matches for these unique old hardware bits can be a challenge!
I recently found a set of knob backplates and keyhole escutcheons (they are separate parts on our house) for our house on Etsy, which is another place you may look, if you don’t already. The set I found was offered by a seller who turns them into coathooks (the horror!), but he was happy to send them to me complete and unmolested.
Yay! Always happy to know I’ve helped, even with tiny little minute things like missing door hardware. We both obsess over nit-picky stuff like this, and since I don’t yet have my own house to obsess over, it scratches a deep, deep itch – getting to help someone else.
I’ve found quite a few things for you over the years!
PS – what are you doing about the plate that’s missing it’s ferrule/collar? Are just going to live with it for awhile as is or are you fashioning something to mitigate that? Need another plate?
In a real pinch, you could probably have a machine shop turn a new one on a lathe from brass stock.
Always happy to know I’ve helped, even in a small way! Obsessing over small stuff like this is therapeutic, since I don’t yet have my own house to obsess over.