Restless Nesting: Hinges and Doorlatches

On February 24th, I posted Cordelia's Hinges to share how I was enjoying even the painstaking work of cleaning up the details of our new home. At that time I had high hopes of continuing to clean hinges, window pulls, and other antique details, but once I found out I was pregnant in March, that all came to a screeching halt. Nausea, fatigue, and concern for the baby's safety when working with chemicals and possible lead paint left my project counter covered in tools and my hinges covered in paint.

Recently my nesting urge has picked up, and while I only meant to clean off that cluttered project counter, I couldn't resist indulging in a little bit of hinge-cleaning on the side. Don't worry, I was painstakingly careful about the baby's safety. I scraped the paint outside in the fresh breeze while wearing rubber gloves. I covered all chemicals with lids and left the doors open to ventilate the house. And I worked in small intervals with plenty of rest and fresh-air breaks. He was safe, I promise.

There was one door catch on a door to my kitchen that had been bothering me. I think it cleaned up pretty well.

And one very visible door, off of my living room has been glaring at me with broken, ugly hinges for far too many months now. This simply had to be remedied. When my front door was replaced shortly after we moved in I saved the old hinges before it was thrown away, hoping to one day clean them up and use them to replace some broken hinges. Here was the result:

Top hinge before

Bottom hinge before

Top hinge again

Cleaning up the hinges I had salvaged from the old front door



Hannah said she liked the pink hinges better, but I had to disagree



Off comes the pink

Top hinge after replacement

Bottom hinge after

A full-door view

I am pleased with the results, but strangely enough, it seems that hanging an enormous solid-wood door on hinges when seven-and-a-half months pregnant does serve to exacerbate both heartburn and backache. Therefore, with this little stunt out of my system, I have retired my exacto knife and cleaning chemicals to the basement, where they shall stay for at least a few months. The rest of the antique detailing can wait: I have enough general organizing and scrubbing to do to satisfy my nesting instinct for the next few weeks.