The doorknob repair man

The doorknob on the bathroom fell off one morning as Paul was trying to exit the room. At first he thought he would not be able to get out, but he found a way to get the door open. The knobs on the other doors, while charming, were loose and could also fall off at any moment with the most gentle tug. So Madame Helleput to the rescue again. She sent the doorknob repairman to come and replace all the knobs. I had to supervise the installment of said knobs after looking up the word for it – "le bouton de porte".

I wrote down what I had to tell him, but then when he talked to me, I often didn’t understand what he was saying. I sure have a long way to go with learning French better. " remplacer" to replace something broken.

The guy came to fix the knobs and he buzzed me to open the downstairs door, but I didn’t know how to open the door from the apartment upstairs. Paul didn't know how either, so after he buzzed twice, I ran down the stairs and opened the door. In my best French, I told him that I didn't know how to open the door from my apartment. He UNDERSTOOD ME!! yay! and he immediately showed me what to do. Paul and I plan to practice the maneuver this evening!

And he replaced all the knobs, even one on a door that I thought went nowhere. And they are just like the old ones.... oval shaped and porcelain. The new ones are even loose just like the old ones.... they must like loose door knobs.