Ding Ding!!

Last Monday, my husband was out walking on our street where there is an apartment being "rennovated" (in my neighborhood, this means that the apartment is having all of the old, fun stuff taken out and replaced by Home Depot). He looked more closely at a door that was out for the garbage that we'd noticed earlier and found that it had some potentially really great hardware on it. I wish I had some photos for you of the 2 of us out on the curb attempting to remove the hardware, under it's 8-10 layers of paint but, as it was 10:30 at night, it was way too dark. So you'll just have to imagine us, complete with flashlight and guilty looks every time someone passed. What follows I did get photos for and it is The Saga of Removing 1,000 Year Old Paint to Uncover Hidden Potential.

I include the photo of the inside of the bell so that you can see that this is a MECHANICAL doorbell! It doesn't ring with all of the paint but it is pretty cool! That knob right next to it in the next photo is the bell knob that goes on the other side of the door. See how shiny and black and wonderful the doorknob is in the third photo!?

I'm sorry that these are so dark. The result of the Citrustrip (thanks for the recommendation Thread and Butter!) was just too fascinatingly disgusting not to document, even if it was getting to be late in the evening.

I think it's beautiful! I don't know what we're going to do with it but I think it's exciting, just the same. I wish you could hear the lovely ding of the door bell. You'll just have to imagine. . .