This comes from Nancy Connolly, who spoke to us in person at the Phinney Home & Remodel Fair. The story seemed to good not to broadcast:
“My fabulous RE Store story is about my door knob and lock. I have a 1950’s home with a very classy door knob mechanism – no knob on the outside, and a deadbolt kind of thing on the inside – brass and very interesting looking. This broke one morning recently and it was very dismaying – not only would the front door not lock, but it didn’t really even fully latch without it. I took the thing off the door without too much difficulty and took it to my local locksmith who told me it was unfixable and that if I purchase a similar item at a local hardware store, he would come out and install and the whole thing would probably cost me about $200 and the new lock would be quite utilitarian and ugly. I shopped several lock smiths and hardware stores (taking up much of the day) and found someone ultimately who told me that some door stores might have a replacement part if they had replaced a door with a similar mechanism. I drove to a couple of door stores, out to Everett, etc., looking for someone who would have the right item, and finally arrived at The RE Store where I found the IDENTICAL, 1950s door lock and latch – NEW in box, still in factory packaging which I installed myself for less than $10. I felt so fortunate to find The RE Store was a repository and solved my problem. I did consider buying 2 – but felt that as the first one had lasted almost 60 years, I would leave the others at your store for others fortunate enough to find you. While I am sure I could have told my story a little more eloquently – I still feel grateful and enjoy my vintage door closer every day!”
Shucks, Nancy – we are glad we could be of help! Makes us wonder what other buried treasure could be making others this happy….
Do you have a RE Store-inspired project to be proud of? Please, show off & share your story!