I transferred $500 to my checking account to spend at Lowe’s. With tax I came in at $492. Not bad! *lol* Of course, I haven’t gotten everything we need yet, but I got about half.
I bought one storm door – the one for the back door. The back door is the most vulnerable part of our house. A simple glass french door. Sure, it has a deadbolt AND an upper security lock – but it’s just a glass door. Anyone with a brick can get in the house from that door. So I bought a super-thick (1 3/4″) storm door with a deadbolt lock. It comes with a retractable screen, so when we’re not home we can have the hard thick storm door up, and when we’re home we can have the screen up to let in a breeze. And given the amount of heat/cool that we probably lose to that door, the storm door will probably help with our electric/gas bills too.
I also bought half of the floor tiles that we’ll need for the kitchen floor redo. I would have bought all of them but the storm door was more expensive than I was expecting to pay. I’ve got some money being deposited into my checking account on Thursday, so I’ll go out Thursday night or Friday night to pick up the rest and buy the other storm door and the deadbolt locks we want to put on the garage entry door. I’ve decided we don’t need deadbolts on the front door or the patio door since we always leave those doors locked with the steel security locks that we’ve got at the top of the doors.
As for the storm door for the front, I’ve decided to get a slightly cheaper model than the one I got for the back. As I said, we never use that door to come or go from the house anymore, so it’s always double-locked. So I don’t think we need a storm door with a security lock on it after all. So I’ll probably just get a basic storm door with a retractable screen.
Oh, and I finally had a chance to look under our carpeting in the TV room. It’s just a cement subfloor covered with carpet padding. Now THAT’S disappointing. However, in a few years (when the kids aren’t as messy and the pets have long-since crossed over the bridge), we’ll rip it all out, put down double padding and a nice new thick carpet. Shouldn’t be too expensive to do since it’s only a 19×14 room.
Anyway, I can’t wait for the handyman to come in a couple weeks. The idea that in two weeks we’ll have new storm doors, a new chandelier in our foyer and a new kitchen floor? VERY exciting. I may even splurge and get new knobs for the kitchen cabinets. Livin’ on the edge!
So, with the glass storm door, the thieves will need two bricks instead of one to get in the back door? LOL I think the key is having the house, especially that back door, alarmed. Hopefully, the cops will get there before they take anything good.
*lol* Denis – I’m hoping that the idea of having to get through TWO doors will be enough to stop them. The good news? Our windows on the main floor have glass-break alarms in place, so the minute those windows are broken, the alarm goes off. And it’s much tougher to climb through a window to steal stuff than a french door. So if would-be thieves decide to take the “easy” way and go through the windows, I believe we’ll be better off. The the storm door helps in that regard.