Celluloidgal
<font color=blue>Absinthe is my aqua vitae!<br><fo
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
The following is an e-mail from my DH this am:
Just wanted to pass on how my day started:
I wake up to go into the bathroom only to discover that one of my kids has successfully left the toilet clogged and so spend some time (after 3 flushes) taking care of that. I start to leave the bathroom to go read my bible (believe it or not I do that once in a while) when I turn the knob and the door won't budge. I check the lock & it's clearly unlocked and the knob actually turns, but it just won't budge. I yell at the mysterious force on the other side of the door thinking that mabye one of my kids is playing a trick on me. Nothing. No shuffle, no innocent little chuckle, nothing. It's apparent that it is the actual latch that the doorknob is supposed to turn that is stuck.
I yell and scream for someone, anyone, to come and my 7 year old boy who happens to be the only one up, comes. He tries from the outside and it won't work that way either. It's an older house so there's no space under or around the door to pass any tools, plus the door opens outward and the lip around the door prevents any access to the latch (even with a credit card which I didn't have anyway). Thus, I go to work removing the door knob with the only tools I have - a pair of tiny tweezers and some nail clippers.
Over a long period of time, I very slowly manage to remove one of the screws but the other just won't budge. So I ask my son to wake up my wife while I go to work with the tweezers on removing the fan vent cover in the ceiling. My wife (or Mrs. MacGyver) than climbs up into the attic and drops a Philips screw driver through the vent shaft. I then am able to remove the knobs but the door latch is still stuck - in fact, the parts that slide the latch start falling apart as we try to jimmy them. My wife and I, on each side of the door, go to work busting and prying it all out piece by piece until finally the latch gives.
So that's how my day started and just a sample of my week so far. If anyone ever gets stuck in an impossible to get out of situation and only has a few miscellaneous items to work with, please feel free to call on me.
Just wanted to pass on how my day started:
I wake up to go into the bathroom only to discover that one of my kids has successfully left the toilet clogged and so spend some time (after 3 flushes) taking care of that. I start to leave the bathroom to go read my bible (believe it or not I do that once in a while) when I turn the knob and the door won't budge. I check the lock & it's clearly unlocked and the knob actually turns, but it just won't budge. I yell at the mysterious force on the other side of the door thinking that mabye one of my kids is playing a trick on me. Nothing. No shuffle, no innocent little chuckle, nothing. It's apparent that it is the actual latch that the doorknob is supposed to turn that is stuck.
I yell and scream for someone, anyone, to come and my 7 year old boy who happens to be the only one up, comes. He tries from the outside and it won't work that way either. It's an older house so there's no space under or around the door to pass any tools, plus the door opens outward and the lip around the door prevents any access to the latch (even with a credit card which I didn't have anyway). Thus, I go to work removing the door knob with the only tools I have - a pair of tiny tweezers and some nail clippers.
Over a long period of time, I very slowly manage to remove one of the screws but the other just won't budge. So I ask my son to wake up my wife while I go to work with the tweezers on removing the fan vent cover in the ceiling. My wife (or Mrs. MacGyver) than climbs up into the attic and drops a Philips screw driver through the vent shaft. I then am able to remove the knobs but the door latch is still stuck - in fact, the parts that slide the latch start falling apart as we try to jimmy them. My wife and I, on each side of the door, go to work busting and prying it all out piece by piece until finally the latch gives.
So that's how my day started and just a sample of my week so far. If anyone ever gets stuck in an impossible to get out of situation and only has a few miscellaneous items to work with, please feel free to call on me.
