Not at all, you can undo the latch with a bent wire hanger. The space between the two doors is not blocked in any way, just insert the bent wire, rotate 90 degrees and pull.
Whether the latch you have works or breaks down, I think your girlfriend has a point – not about breaking up all the red, but just that traditional hardware can be very attractive and add to the appearance rather than detracting from it. Did you have a chance to opt out of this solution? I wouldn’t be very happy with a carpenter I had hired making this decision on his own. It does have the advantage of being cheaper, but that’s about it, as far as I’m concerned.
This is why you need to have plans and specifications. Otherwise, CMG (carpenter make good). I’ve got a client right now who is the stereotypical, “Oh, whatever, as long as it works.” “Well, it works but I don’t like it.” Unless you’re available 24/7 and it’s a T&M job, the carpenter is going to do things their way.
It is a simple gate latch, just like the one I have to my garden gate, with a hole drilled into the wall and a pull string.
My gf hired him, picked color and type of siding and roof. He also tore down and rebuilt a little dock on our pond and the small storage building on that dock. All the details were worked out.
I think she thought he’d just reuse the original door hardware. He’s kind of artistic though.
Time & Materials? No, he wrote up an estimate for completion of the projects and we paid half up front. He worked on our stuff and other jobs all summer, a few hours most days.
One advantage to that mechanism is that the hardware is inside and out of the elements, lessening corrosion and sticking, etc…
Nah, if you’re inside and want to keep others out, you could use anything at all in the padlock holes: Eyehooks, bolts, whatever. And if there isn’t any of those in the shed, then it’s not a proper shed.
Funny contractor story. We have a contractor who has replaced our home’s roof, siding, and windows over the years. Good guy.
When he replaced all the windows he also put in a bay window in our living room. All went well, but the screens for the bay window were incorrect and he had to order the correct ones. Although this was pre-Covid, there were supply chain issues that went on for months. He would call my gf every few weeks and explain that the screens were eventually going to arrive.
The entire time he was working on the house, I’d take the dogs to work. He’d arrive after I left, and leave before I got home. It was all cool.
One day I came home from work and the bay windows were open, there were screens in place! It felt kinda weird that he just drove up and walked right in.
Wanting to mess with my gf, I climbed onto the made bed, fluffed a pillow, and laid there to leave a body imprint. When she got home I told here something really odd happened. I showed her the screens, and explained that Jim Johnson (not his real name…or is it?) had just walked in and installed the screens. She agreed that was odd, but not that big a deal.
I told her no, that’s not the strange part. I took her into the bedroom, pointed at the bed, and told her that he must have been exhausted, because he’d taken a nap. This freaked her out so bad that I immediately told her it was a joke.
To this day, we still have a running joke about Jim Johnson being responsible if something has been misplaced.
There IS (about 37 seconds) more to that story … that – IMHO – adds to its charm:
Hah!…