HandyCat

I put a new door handle and deadbolt on my front door this evening. My deadbolt was broken so I'd been relying on just the flimsy doorknob lock for several months and didn't really feel safe at night. If I didn't have a security alarm, I probably would have replaced it a lot sooner, but I'm lazy and the security alarm made me feel a bit safer, so it took me awhile.

But it's done! And while I was at it, I replaced my standard round doorknob with a lever style that is much, much easier for me to open. The RA has gotten bad enough over the past couple of years that I have a lot of difficulty turning standard round doorknobs and faucets. The new one looks like this, except that it has the lever on both sides rather than having the, um... I don't know what to call it. The thumb tab thingie on the outside. That would be really hard for me to open during a flare-up. The lever is easy.

Of course, looking at the picture, I now realize I put the levers on upside down. I'll switch them tomorrow. But the point is, I did it myself. It took me nearly two hours (because at one point I couldn't figure how to get the levers on at all, so I gave up and put the old doorknob back on. Then I figured it out and had to do it all over again.) and my hands and wrists are now all swollen and sore from all the screwdriving and such, but I did it!