diff --git a/buildtools/config.py b/buildtools/config.py
index 6d3b5074..cb1055d4 100644
--- a/buildtools/config.py
+++ b/buildtools/config.py
@@ -651,15 +651,15 @@ def writeIfChanged(filename, text):
     """
         
     if os.path.exists(filename):
-        fid = codecs.open(filename, 'r', 'utf-8')
-        current = fid.read()
-        fid.close()
+        f = textfile_open(filename, 'rt')
+        current = f.read()
+        f.close()
         
         if current == text:
             return
 
-    f = codecs.open(filename, 'w', 'utf-8')
-    f.write(text.encode('utf-8'))
+    f = textfile_open(filename, 'wt')
+    f.write(text)
     f.close()
 
 
@@ -777,12 +777,13 @@ def myExecfile(filename, ns):
     
 def textfile_open(filename, mode='rt'):
     """
-    Simple wrapper around open() that will open normally on Python 2.x and on
-    Python 2.3 will add the encoding parameter. The mode parameter must
-    include the 't' to put the stream into text mode.
+    Simple wrapper around open() that will use codecs.open on Python 2.x and
+    on Python 2.3 will add the encoding parameter to the normal open(). The
+    mode parameter must include the 't' to put the stream into text mode.
     """
     assert 't' in mode
     if sys.version_info < (3,):
-        return open(filename, mode)
+        import codecs
+        return codecs.open(filename, mode, encoding='utf-8')
     else:
         return open(filename, mode, encoding='utf-8')
diff --git a/etgtools/generators.py b/etgtools/generators.py
index 52a88662..6829ede4 100644
--- a/etgtools/generators.py
+++ b/etgtools/generators.py
@@ -80,35 +80,31 @@ def nci(text, numSpaces=0, stripLeading=True):
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-if sys.version_info < (3,):
-    # For Python 2.x we'll convert any unicode text values to strings before
-    # adding them to the buffer
-    from StringIO import StringIO
-    class Utf8EncodingStream(StringIO):
+# io.StringIO reads/writes unicode objects for both Python 2.7 and 3.x. For
+# 2.7 we'll convert any string values to unicode objects before storing them
+# in the StringIO
+
+import io
+class Utf8EncodingStream(io.StringIO):
+    if sys.version_info < (3,):
         def write(self, text):
-            if isinstance(text, unicode):
-                text = text.encode('utf-8')
-            return StringIO.write(self, text)
-
-else:
-    # For Python 3.x we'll keep it all as str (unicode) objects and let the
-    # conversion to bytes happen when the text is written to the actual
-    # file.
-    from io import StringIO
-    class Utf8EncodingStream(StringIO):
-        pass
-
+            if isinstance(text, str):
+                text = text.decode('utf-8')
+            return io.StringIO.write(self, text)
+    
+    
 
 
 def textfile_open(filename, mode='rt'):
     """
-    Simple wrapper around open() that will open normally on Python 2.x and on
-    Python 2.3 will add the encoding parameter. The mode parameter must
-    include the 't' to put the stream into text mode.
+    Simple wrapper around open() that will use codecs.open on Python 2.x and
+    on Python 2.3 will add the encoding parameter to the normal open(). The
+    mode parameter must include the 't' to put the stream into text mode.
     """
     assert 't' in mode
     if sys.version_info < (3,):
-        return open(filename, mode)
+        import codecs
+        return codecs.open(filename, mode, encoding='utf-8')
     else:
         return open(filename, mode, encoding='utf-8')
     
diff --git a/etgtools/sip_generator.py b/etgtools/sip_generator.py
index 74e36e2b..a1257f25 100644
--- a/etgtools/sip_generator.py
+++ b/etgtools/sip_generator.py
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ class SipWrapperGenerator(generators.WrapperGeneratorBase):
         # Write the contents of the stream to the destination file
         if not destFile:
             destFile = os.path.join(phoenixRoot, 'sip/gen', module.name + '.sip')
-        textfile_open(destFile, 'wt').write(stream.getvalue())
+        f = textfile_open(destFile, 'wt')
+        f.write(stream.getvalue())
+        f.close()
             
         
     #-----------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/sphinxtools/postprocess.py b/sphinxtools/postprocess.py
index 418d4419..81b7c106 100644
--- a/sphinxtools/postprocess.py
+++ b/sphinxtools/postprocess.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import subprocess
 
 # Phoenix-specific imports
 import templates
-from buildtools.config import copyIfNewer, writeIfChanged, newer, getSvnRev
+from buildtools.config import copyIfNewer, writeIfChanged, newer, getSvnRev, textfile_open
 
 from utilities import Wx2Sphinx
 from constants import HTML_REPLACE, TODAY, SPHINXROOT, SECTIONS_EXCLUDE
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def BuildEnumsAndMethods(sphinxDir):
     
     for input in textfiles:
                 
-        fid = open(input, 'rt')
+        fid = textfile_open(input, 'rt') 
         orig_text = text = fid.read()
         fid.close()
 
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ def BuildEnumsAndMethods(sphinxDir):
         text = TooltipsOnInheritance(text, class_summary)
 
         if text != orig_text:
-            fid = open(input, 'wt')
+            fid = textfile_open(input, 'wt')  
             fid.write(text)
             fid.close()
 
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ def BuildEnumsAndMethods(sphinxDir):
     keys = unreferenced_classes.keys()
     keys.sort()
 
-    fid = open(os.path.join(SPHINXROOT, 'unreferenced_classes.inc'), 'wt')
+    fid = textfile_open(os.path.join(SPHINXROOT, 'unreferenced_classes.inc'), 'wt') 
     fid.write('\n')
     fid.write('='*50 + ' ' + '='*50 + '\n')
     fid.write('%-50s %-50s\n'%('Reference', 'File Name(s)'))