June 22, 2007
A New Old House
The first night in a new house is guaranteed to be an evening of discovery... and not always the pleasant kind. Like when you find out that flipping one particular wall switch trips the circuit breaker for two rooms. Three trips to the basement electrical panel came out of that discovery. Or when you notice that in order to turn on the summer kitchen light, you have to go into the dark room, walk around the open door, reach behind it and flick the switch. Not exactly user-friendly.
Then there are the little quirks that every house has:
-- The high spot in the middle of the upstairs hallway
-- The porch light that flickers on and off for no discernable reason
-- The ceiling fan that makes a ticking noise on high speed
-- The back door that needs an extra push in order for the deadbolt to click in
And a few gaffes that were purely our fault. Our clever design for a trap door on the backyard basement entrance instead of bulky Bilco doors has become an incredibly heavy piece of lumber. The point was to have a door that lies flat against the deck when it's not open -- giving us use of the entire square footage. But even the contractors are stymied as to how we can open it easily when necessary.
As everyone tries to figure out the mystery of the heavy trap door, my theory is to leave it as is. Since there are interior basement stairs, the only time we'll ever need to open the trap door is for a large delivery of equipment or oil. In that case, a large, strong man is usually in attendance and it can be his responsibility to open the door. Sexism? Maybe. Practicality? Definitely.
Comments
Re: the trap door
Is there any way to attach gas struts to assist with opening the door? I admit that I haven't read anything about your setup except what is in this post, so if there's a reason that won't work, just ignore me.