The Odds & Ends of Owning A Home, Continued

Yesterday I met up with some workmen from EZ Slide Door Repair (#1-888-798-5132) reference five sliding glass doors & screen doors at my new house.  None of them open smoothly, and all of them could use an extra security lock.

The locks ended up being $45 per door, and since I figured those were my top priority I ended up getting all five doors equipped with one (even the upstairs sliders - that would have to be one above-average burglar to reach those!).  Replacing the rollers for all of the doors, however, was a little more expensive than I imagined:  $110 per glass door, and about $40 per screen door.

As much as I would love (eventually) to open & close my doors with a minimum of fuss, I really don't envision using them except for rare party occasions.  The house I'm in right now has several windows that have never been opened in the two years I've been here...I don't see myself doing anything different in a new home.  Thus I decided to wait on the rollers (and the more than $700 repair bill that would come with them!) and simply stick with the locks.

At this point, so close to my move-in date, it's all about what takes top priority on the small list of things I can afford.

Comments

[BHarrison]

this just shows how costly it is to not be "handy" at doing home repairs. One can either learn how to do these types of jobs or "pay the exorbitant price for tradesmen". Lowes and Home Depot used to have free classes on how to do many of these repairs. One can either learn to be self reliant or pay others to do relatively simple repairs.

[Karen]

Being handy isn't the answer either. I am handy but have a bad back that decided to "slip" out Saturday morning as I was literally JUST STARTING a back yard project. Wasted weekend, wasted sick day, wasted money on chiropractor, waste waste waste - sometimes it is just better to get a good handyman!!!

[Amanda]

To BHarrison & Karen -

Thanks for the input. If it's a relatively simple matter like painting, putting together furniture, etc., I prefer to do it myself - for jobs that actually require some sort of skill I defer to the professionals.

I would hate to think what would happen if I actually attempted to, say, tile my kitchen backsplash. I understand the mechanics behind the job (and they seem simple enough), but if anything goes wrong then I have no recourse but to spend more money to fix it.