Field Trip: Discovery Architectural Antiques

Matt & I hadn't gone on any little weekend adventures lately, so we decided to make a field trip down to Gonzales to check out a big architectural antiques (i.e., antique building supplies) store called Discovery Architectural Antiques.

It was totally the mother lode. In fact, they had even more stuff than Adkins Architectural Antiques in Houston, which is saying something. They had lots of lovely stained glass.


They had pressed tin ceiling tiles.


They had bunches of light fixtures,


strangely pretty commodes,


strangely tiny bathtubs,


and creepy Masonic doorknobs


They had oddly adorable radiators (this one reminds me of a piglet somehow, but in a good way).


But most of all, they had doors. This place was the Khazad-dûm of doors.

Left: Discovery door warehouse; right: Khazad-dûm

Normal doors,

big doors,

and turquoise doors.


They had a special complex of slightly scary and ramshackle warehouses separate from the main store that had hundreds and hundreds of doors (actually, over 6,000, according to the sales dude.) It's pretty amazing.

The prices, on the other hand, weren't as good as you would expect, given the huge warehouses of inventory. Raised 5-panel doors like ours cost close to $300--Mom & Dad bought ours at Round Top for (if memory serves) $80 a piece. Even taking into account Dad's special bargaining gene and the fact that we bought several at once, the average human should be able to do a lot better than $300.

However, if you really need at 9-foot tall door with a stained glass inset and a gothic point at the top, for example, you're probably willing to pay $2,000. In other words, if your need is really particular, this place may be your salvation.

And also, on an unrelated note, Gonzales is home to two free-range tortoises promenading solemnly down avenues of bonzais (only one visible below). Odd but true. And now Matt wants one.

Nice lamp

Good News! House Not Falling Down

Nice Mr. Structural Engineer

First off, the good news: our house is officially not falling down. Matt& I had noticed some new, sizable cracks in the stone facade of the house that worried us. We decided to have a structural engineer take a look and tell us whether or not the house was falling apart. The verdict: NOT falling apart!

The engineer got under the house and looked at the piers, which are stacks of concrete blocks set on a cement perimeter. He says they're holding up fine. In about 5 years, we should have another inspection to see if any of them need to be re-aligned, but for now, he doesn't recommend taking any action. He said that we should expect to see some seasonal shifting as our house is built on sand that contains a little clay. In addition, although our piers are adequate, they aren't the most stable model, which is a poured concrete pillar set several feet into the ground. Consequently, shifting is to be expected. He also said that if we did get the house leveled, we'd probably end up doing all kinds of damage to the interior. So we're going to stick with the status quo. We could, if we had all kinds of extra money, invest $12K in installing the deluxe version of cement piers, but he didn't really recommend it. Nice structural engineer. Regarding the cracks in the mortar, he just recommended patching.

I had been dreading having to take out a $10K loan to have the house leveled, causing all kinds of damage to the brand-new bookshelves, and seriously imperiling my ability to pursue any other home restoration projects or to buy a new car (the old gal has 216K miles on her--she's a good old wagon, but sometime in the next year or two so she's going to be called to the great car lot in the sky). So the engineer's report was phenomenally good news for us.

We Welcome Another Antique Knob to the Family
One of the ways we celebrated was by installing new door knobs (you should see us when we really cut loose). I installed a new exterior doorknob in our study to match the other two new knobs (in stylish oil-rubbed bronze.) We also needed a new knob for the door that separates the public part of the house (kitchen, living room, dining room, guest room) from the back rooms (master bed, mudroom, study, master bath). We restrict Po to the private part when he's unsupervised because there are fewer things for him to break back there.

So we needed a door knob. We checked out Elgin's Antique Mall today, and they had only 1 door knob set that came with the matching mechanism. Lucky for us, it came with an exterior mechanism, which is what we needed for the kind of door we've got.

The knobs aren't very nice (mis-matched brown and black porcelain), but the box is pretty awesome, and the price ($22) was just right. We need to find a spring to get the knob to work--for now, we just use the lock to keep the door shut. And we'll need to get Dad's advice on how to polish and protect the metal box. But even in the interim, it's functional and interesting. Matt's going to paint the door soon, and that should make the lock really stand out.

Stain for the Bookshelves
We've also been testing stains on the undersides of our shelves. From left to right: Red Oak, Cherry, Gunstock ("gunstock," forsooth!) and American Cherry.


We're going with (I cringe as I type this) "Gunstock," the only wood finish with the National Rifle Association Seal of Approval. Sedona Red or Red Chestnut are closer to being the actual color I had in mind, but they weren't available at either Ace or Lowe's. And as Gunstock is a little lighter, it may be better in a small room like the study. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but all of the stains turned out a little blotchy--we may need to use a pre-stain wood conditioner to help it go on more evenly. Good thing we've gone through this extensive trial process.

We're also progressing on the porch glider. We finished painting the stand, and Matt's started bending pipes from the old hurricane fence to replace the swing's supports. I've put 2 coats of "spar urethane" (weird name, huh? Is it the urethane for protecting spars on ships, or what?)* on the stained slats. Now we just need to paint the supports, drill holes in them, and buy some special bolts with acorn nuts from Austin Bolt Co. Anyway, we're getting close.

*apparently, a polyurethane with UV-absorbers to protect against sun damage. Thus saith wikipedia. No word on the etymology. (Hah! "No word on the etymology!") The existence of a product called "McCloskey® Man O'War® Spar Marine Varnish," however, would suggest that the term does, indeed derive from nautical usage.