The Three Day Saga Of The Bathroom Door

Gather 'round friends, and listen to the story of the bathroom door. It should have been simple, and yet, alas, it twas not.

To set the scene:

We brought workout bands with us to Barcelona.  Our personal trainer, Cedric, had suggested it and even emailed us a number of exercises we could do with them.

Carol was sleeping Monday morning when I started using the bands with the bedroom door.  She opened the door, and I got whacked in the head by them (thanks hon!).  She then put them on the second bathroom door and did her workout, whilst I nursed my sore head.  

When finished, she couldn't get the door back open.  I then gave it a manly shoulder push, but nothing.  Turns out the door had locked itself.  No big deal, as at least we still had our bathroom and nearly a week before the arrival of our guests.

We let Milena know via WhatsApp (everyone in Europe uses it, and it is the best way to text back to the US).  She was coming Tuesday morning at 10:00 am to give us our free tour of Montjuic. 

The struggle:

The three of us worked on the door.  However, even once unlocked, the door would not open.  The latch was frozen in place.  The hinges on the door are inside the bathroom, so there was no way to remove the pins and simply take the door off.

We removed the door handle (Carol found an explainer video on YouTube), but that didn't do anything to allow the door latch to move.  After an 75 minutes of frustration, it was time to call in the big guns.

The workers are very responsive, as they came and worked on it for hours while we were gone.  As we came back into the building, we saw the superintendent and the locksmiths (two) leaving.  Still no luck.   They came back in the early evening with more tools.  

When they were kicking and body slamming against the door, Carol observed that they were going to have to remove the door frame itself.  I thought, hey, I could have kicked the door too!  (Better them than me.  I would have kicked a hole in the door).

Success.  For the most part:

It was time to bring in the fourth expert.  Sure enough, on Wednesday, when we came back after a day out, the door frame was removed.  We could get into the second bathroom before our guests were arriving! (Maddy on Saturday, Don and Jennifer Minnis on Tuesday).  It was a major victory!  

The door doesn't latch (there is no latch), but at least it shuts.  

And that, my friends, was the three day saga of the bathroom door.  We figured that between us, Milena, the building manager, and the four locksmiths, we had eight people work on it.  Of course, only one was successful.  And that would be enough.