ding DONG! Aarufff, Rruff, RrawFFFF!

A spooky glowing eye?

No!  The house finally has a working doorbell again and that was it (probably autofocus and no flash, but I'm not sure.) Every step installing it has had some complication or another, making it an enormous pain in the butt over several days. I'm most upset about the inaccurate description posted by the online retailer AND how one of their employees called to argue with me about it and insist my complaint was just a matter of semantics. Accommodating that one difference they dismiss is what set off an avalanche of problems. But I really don't have the energy to go through it step by step.

I am very pleased that it works. I like the size and the decorative detailing and the finish. I am especially enjoying that it lights up with an LED. The light is supposed to make it easier to find in the dark, but the porch light right above is illuminated all the time anyway. I appreciate it's unexpected usefulness as an indicator that the wires are properly connected.

And it certainly is a huge improvement over the old doorbell button, which had endured sloppy paint jobs and about 21 years of use. At first it was still operable even with the duct tape over the missing button section. I'd applied that because of the way the button on it had broken. I wanted to be sure no one would be at risk of cuts or shock from using the button, but needed to leave it in place while securing a replacement.

I'm certain, besides age, location and resulting positional abuse contributed to its demise. While sheltered from weather conditions by many feet in all directions, it had the misfortune of being mounted on a wall perpendicular to the door. I think most people pressing on it were doing so from the outside corner, rather than flat on the face of the button. Makes sense that it would snap the way it did. In the last year possibly five different people have drawn my attention to this doorbell button (pre-duct tape, with no broken parts), suggesting that it didn't work. I'd reach over from the door's threshold and press firmly on the face of the button and we'd both hear the doorbell chiming loudly a few feet behind me. I think the button in the new doorbell button has a better chance because the button part doesn't pop out and press in  to the same extent.  There's no outside corner to press on in a circle.

I really should do some touch up sanding and painting to really finish the installation. I even took out the matching paint when I started this project. But it's been so much extra trouble already and I am truly exhausted.  Unfortunately next time there's a problem, new wires are going to have to be fished through. Every bit of extra slack was used up in this fix (not my plan at all, just kept going that way) and I found that the insulation on the wires came off easily, seemingly without even touching it at all. And the smallest manipulations tended to snap the wire right off.

Easy & Cheap Upcycled DIY Yarn Swift

Instructions for Tilta Swift at webeccasays.blogspot.com

This baby is every bit as great as my bead spinner, and the only thing I had to buy was the box, which cost me a few dollars at Staples.  The box is a 5 or 6 inch cube and was the smallest they had at the time.  Saw at Webeccasays that someone even used a huge mug instead.  I inherited the lazy susan, used recovered elastic from an old garment, and everything else I just had on hand.  I put small cast garden stones in the middle of the box to keep it from sliding off center when it's moving fast.  I know there's some rubbery shelf liner around here somewhere, but the weight seems to work just fine.  I position the clothespins above the yarn because for winding I sit in my recliner and put the swift where my feet should be.  The yarn has a tendency to occasionally pop over the top, but never wants to slide off the bottom.  A bit of the outcome depends on the sticky/grippiness of the yarn itself and how neatly or less neatly the hank was wound.

Was just a small challenge and a bit of practice to figure out how to adjust the yarn for easiest use.  Like being sure one end of the yarn came neatly off the outside of the hank (as arranged around the swift) and the other end tended to fall to the inside.  I have the best luck when turning the swift clockwise with the yarn approaching the ball winder around the 5:30 position.  Also results are better when I keep the wire guide for the ball winder aimed toward where the yarn is coming from.  Sounds like common sense, but I made some odd mistakes at first and had inconsistent results until I relaxed about it and was paying better attention.