The no-bell prize

This was not the best of days -- it does get tense as the days dwindle down -- but things did get done.

We ordered a few extra door sets, towel bars, TP holders -- all those glamorous things. Picked up tile for two bathroom floors. Researched finishes for the fir front door. All's well.

And then: A, having left town, passed the paving bid on to B, but B wouldn't be able to do it either, so C stepped in. D had a dispute with E over contract terms. F had a dispute with G about code requirements. H and I disagreed about a whole raft of things.

Early in the day, I'd found spray paint that would turn our twig door pulls, which are cast bronze but look like really cheap gilt, into a simulacrum of oil-rubbed bronze. By the time I drove some flipping screws into a flipping board to support them for flipping painting, I was flipping out.

Then the UPS man drove up with our doorbell (ring it when you click on that link) -- an old-fashioned, honest-to-God, twist-and-hear-it bell, also in oil-rubbed bronze. Makes such a cool old sound, and works even when hurricanes leave us with no power. I gleefully ripped the package open and found . . . the really beautifully detailed twist and beaded escutcheon for the outside of the door, in a lovely oil-rubbed bronze. No bell.

I am happy to report that the twist is so well made that it didn't suffer any damage at all when I flipped the flipping thing the flipping length of the flipping house.