Daffodils! Spring is here!

Years ago I planted a mix of yellow and white daffodils.  I expected the yellow daffodils to naturalize and the weaker (I thought) white daffodils to gradually disappear.  Just the opposite happened.  The last yellow one bloomed 4 or 5 years ago, and since then the only ones that have come up are my favorites — the white ones!

Such cheerful, beautiful little faces!

That’s really odd to me because all of the naturalized daffodils along the roadside are the solid yellow ones.

I finally got out and got the first of the new cabinet latches installed.  They are much better than the old ones.

I did, of course, run into a few problems.

First was removing the old bezel that was firmly wedged into the hole.  I ended up using my Dremel to grind out enough so that I could pry the rest out with a screwdriver.

The old, broken latch.

Secondly, the new bezel is a little larger than the old one, so I had to grind out the hole a little to accommodate the larger size.

I also stuck glue and toothpick pieces into the old screw holes to give the screws new wood to bite into.  And I coated the scuffed fake wood where the vinyl covering was worn off with a layer of glue to help protect it from moisture intrusion.

Then I mounted the new latch, closed the cabinet and pushed the knob — and it stuck tight.  I finally managed to get it open, puzzled at why it could have worked so beautifully before I screwed it down, and why it jammed up now.  With the cabinet door open, I pushed the knob again and it jammed again.

The old bezel

The only thing that was different between when it worked and when it didn’t was that it was screwed tightly to the cabinet door.

So I loosened the screws a half turn each — and the latch worked like magic.  It has such a solid, sturdy feel to it now.  A huge improvement over the old ones.

Old bezel out and hole slightly enlarged

If you want to order the new ones from Casita, specify the ones with the brown back.  They are the newer, better fitting ones.  The older ones have black backs.

I still have 5 more to go to replace the old latches that jam the worst.  But I just didn’t feel like doing the rest of them today.  That will be a project for tomorrow.

New cabinet latch installed.

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