Locked out, again
March 9th, 2008, 6:47 pm · 6 Comments · posted by acrawford
BY AMY CRAWFORD, 33.10 Content Editor
I locked myself out of the house again today and unlike the time before, I didn’t have the heart to break in. Unlike Jason, who gave tips on breaking and entering in his blog, Never Mind The Sand, I can’t make myself purposely break things in the house, yet.
Normally, I lock myself out of the car or truck. I have a long history of doing this that dates back to high school. So now that’s why I have AAA. They’re great. Someone usually comes and lets me into the vehicle and it costs nothing except for the yearly membership fee (which is cheaper than what it would cost you to call a locksmith to open your car, especially if you repeat the mishap several times a year) and the amount of time it takes for the service to show.
I tried prying the screen off the window that we use as a door sometimes (OK, last night, it was turned into a doorway). It started to bend and break, so I stopped. I knew Jason would be home soon, but still, I was frustrated. Instead, I went out to one of our planters and finished weeding most of it. I may not be able to break doorknobs, but man, can I pull weeds. Looks like I’m going to need to bone up on my breaking and entering skills.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am
How now, it’s not that I like breaking things. Just with both of us locked out…on a sunday with one of us having to get to work shortly it seemed replacing a doorknob we’ve been wanting to replace would be a better option than calling a locksmith
At least this time one of us did have keys on us - I just didn’t realize the door were locked when I took off to get us food! And it could have been worse…poor Psammy was locked INSIDE and had to miss out on the wonderful weather and weeding!
March 11th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Yes, she was quite unhappy about being locked in the house when I was in the backyard taunting her with the tennis ball. I thought she might bust through the window, then I could blame getting back into the house on the dog.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Go to Lowes or Home Depot, do not pass go and you won’t need but about 20 dollars, but buy a key safe and mount it on the exterior of your house somewhere. Or pick up the type that the realtors use that can be locked on to a hose bib. Just put it where you can get at it, put a spare key in it and set a combination that you will remember.
First thing that I did when I took possession of my house. Works great if you have out of town guests that need to let themselves in too.
Never be locked out again.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Erfert, do they make those for cars and trucks as well? That would be a godsend! And yes, we are planning on getting one of those nifty Realtor do-dads. We just have to find a place to put it.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Actually the feature is available on some vehicles both for access and starting from what I understand. I imagine it isn’t available as an after market feature as of yet.
Being the gadget type person I am, I probably would have one if they were out on the market.
There is another option for keyless access, thinking about it, it is a battery powered lockset that fits an entry door and has a key override in case your batteries go dead (something not uncommon in our Yuma heat).
I thought about putting one of those in, but it doesn’t include the deadbolt, so if the dead bolt was set it would still require a key to get entry.
If you have an automatic garage door, you can also consider a remote device for that. I have one on the exterior near the door and it sure saves steps if I want to open the garage door from the outside. I put one of those in a couple of years ago and I have (knock on wood) not had to replace batteries or reprogram the remote. It also works with a combination that you select and can change as often as you would like.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I remeber when Jason was about 4 and Sarah 2 that Tim and I were locked out. I had to crawl through the basement window. I still marvel that I was small enough to do that at one time….