Treehouse Door Accessories

Isn't this an awesome doorbell. It's an antique manual doorbell that was patented on March 14, 1899. It's brass with cast iron working parts and still works! Only one little catch, when we make the treehouse door has to be up to only 2 1/4 inches thick.

I wanted a skeleton key lock for the door and I found this one on Ebay (of course). I took it to a locksmith to get an extra key and his eyes lit up. He said this lock was from an old plantation and was made back in the 1800s. How do you know this?, I asked. He told me that it had two different size keys that fit it, and that one side of the door had two key holes and the other had only one. One key was given to the house slaves and only the master had both keys. This was to keep the slaves from entering the master's quarters when the master was sleeping. One of those "Just in case" precautions. It made an interesting story. If only this lock and doorbell would talk.