Here’s a small update that I simply loved.  It’s a minor thing and my initial plan on the last post was to include this, too however after writing about the lift and the gable of the bay, the gable post seemed worthy to stand alone. 

As mentioned before, we have been working on several things and I will keep diligently writing and posting pics of them as I can but there’s a lot to show. Here’s another one for you.

You know how I love working on the small detail things and bringing them back to life?   Earlier examples were the old door knob, face plates and door locks where they were taken apart, scrubbed, oiled and put back together (as well as working again! 😊)  There has been another small hardware piece I’ve always adored in this house which I’ve been waiting to get to (our realtor, Caroline will remember this): the door chimes.  

The house had two; one on the left side door to a small porch (off the library) and one on the back side door at the foot of the back stairs.  They are great little mechanical door bells.  You twist the handle from the outside and a shaft inside rotates and clangs the bell mounted on the inside of the door.  Voila!  It’s one of the early inventions of the 19^th century and still a charmer for its simplicity and beauty.  Here’s an image from online showing the door bell system.

First however, a little history lesson.  Although pull door bells had been invented before, the turn key style mechanical doorbell (chime) was first patented in 1891.  Some became quite elaborate, far beyond ours, but I love ours just the same. And even our chime with its simple design is like the front door knob of the same era, with an intricate detailed pattern, including carvings and flowers.  The Victorians did like their detail! 

I always loved the idea of them but they were hard to turn, barely clanked and ours was painted over with white paint and the outside facing had the brunt of the weather hitting it, therefore it was quite dirty. 

I decided to see if I could tackle my door bell.  One afternoon, I carefully removed the screws holding on the bell from the inside and this is what I found:

I LOVE the tiny gears!  When you turn the handle, all of the gears rotate and spin (albeit clunkily) in different directions.  But it’s quite charming (and clever)!

I took a photo so that I could remember how to put them all back together and knew…YES…I knew was going to try to save this!   

Each gear was carefully removed, keeping them in reverse order (and taking photos as I went).  Below are photos of the complete unit sitting on my desk.

I started with the outside prettiest part of the unit and used some elbow grease, a tooth pick and some brasso over a series of days….

Below you can see how black it was in the pics below, before I began rubbing and scrubbing it.  As I did, underneath the years of dirt, I found a pretty little design, as well as a word began to appear “TURN.”    Ahhhhh….and I didn’t even know this was there!  My motivation to keep going!

Next, I moved on to the inside gears.  You can see how rusty some of the parts were and the condition it was in.  This unit was in trouble but it still had all of the gears intact.  Each part was given a good metal cleaning, a polish and oiling.  Once they were cleaned and oiled, I turned the shaft and the gears spun so quickly and smoothly, like a well oiled machine!

I put it all back together and it now hangs on the same left side entrance door (part of the new porch).  It now chimes so clearly!  I LOVE this this thing.  I’ll be honest, this was one of my favorite things about this house (I know, silly) when we first looked at it, and I still love it.

How pretty!  The way it had been mounted before was pretty basic (less than basic, actually) into the door (to say the least. Ha!).   The door was dug out and left ragged as you can see from the photos.  I will change the mount somehow to make it prettier, but I haven’t decide exactly how yet.   For now, I put it back in its place.   It’s up and works beautifully!   And like many of these 100-year-old mechanical items; from the locks, to the door knobs, to the chimes, if you clean them up, they still work!   I seriously doubt someone in the distant future could come across a home built in 2010 and find the doors knobs, locks and mechanisms, can all still work.  😉  There’s something to be said for gears and levers of the industrial age! 

Side note:  Someone has now officially used it for the first time the other night instead of knocking on the door!  It was GREAT!

I even found one online of the exact style this was.  How fun!

Door Bell Chime #2 –

As you might remember, there was a second door chime.  With such great results, I had to try.  It was by far the ugliest and you could barely turn the key for the chime.  If you could get it to turn, the bell was a clunk….clunk…clunk.   So it sat and if I had not already worked on the left side door chime, I would have probably tossed this, but now I know something quite pretty could be hiding under that paint.  I had to see.

Here it was in all its glory, untouched since we bought the house.  You see what we walked past it and would have thrown it out.

But knowing what I know….I began to chip at the paint while it was still in the door and there was indeed some scroll patterns there.

The decision was made and off it went to my cleaning plate. Again, I spent a few days working it and the gears and slowly, another beautiful little butterfly emerged.  😊   A few pics of the process:

A hint of shine!  Do you see it?  

It was cleaned and oiled, all the little gears rubbed down, and just as the first one, works beautifully with a lovely little chime!

Unfortunately, the unit was not a brass piece and the finish only painted, which could not be saved.  The mechanism though was fine and again, intact!   Since it was only painted before, I painted it again.  That works! 

Pretty, isn’t it?  Classic Victorian era all the way.

I haven’t put this one back into the door yet as I’m not sure if I will put it back in the same place.  If so, it would also need a new mount. 

Like the side porch door for the first door bell, this one was also dug into the door for the mount.   From what we can tell, although the rooms were old, some of these doors were placed here in the 20^th century.  The owner at the time, kept the door chimes but merely dug into the new doors for the mounts to fit, and that’s why the mount is the way it is. 

I’ll be sure to post a quick pick once the first one is remounted and this one, once finds it home!