Day Six-ninety-three: where have we been?

Hello, well we promise that we haven't been slacking. We took a diversion from the kitchen to do some needed yard maintenance that must be bashful because it's not very photo- or blogo-genic. We had planned to put sod down in a few problem areas and when a friend offered us some surplus sod...well momma didn't raise no dummies. We jumped at the chance even though we weren't prepared to receive this gift and had to throw all our attention into getting those areas ready. Laying sod, dethatching and overseeding the whole yard, and watering everything. It's all in about as good a condition as we can make it heading into the cold season.

But that's all behind us now, so this weekend we got back into the kitchen. We hadn't used inset hinges before and were experimenting with the placement and height to see what looked the best, so we started with a small door. Just knock this little guy out and then we'd be off to the races installing all the rest. Well, that was the theory anyway and if there's one thing these past two years have taught us it's that when theory meets reality there's never any doubt who will win.

What tripped us up was that the door wouldn't stay closed. It fit into the opening just fine and swung on the hinges like a champ, but unless we planned to hold every door closed or use bricks or something they wouldn't stay shut. Cue research on door clasps. Home Depot didn't have a huge selection, but it did have some inexpensive options and one of these looked promising. Of course, just like when we shortened and moved the drawer slides, this job would require more shims.

Here's the connection part of the clasp and the shim to hold it.

Here's the matching half of the clasp attached to the inside of the door.

Aren't they a beautiful couple?

And here is the finished door with the handle.

We got two more doors installed but only one clasp. You can see the difference that it makes. One door stays ajar.