Buying a foreclosed home has its challenges. Usually the bank that owns the property takes a long time to respond and negotiate and close on the deal. But that process was easy compared to what we’ve experienced since moving in. You see, when you buy a foreclosed home and have to take it AS IS; it’s up to you to correct anything wrong with the house. In our case, the house was in pretty good shape. A leaky toilet supply line, a burned out motor in the garbage disposal, and I don’t even want to mention how dirty the HVAC filters were. But it’s the little things that drive you crazy.
Mystery light switches…we have no less than three switches that we have no idea what they control. For all we know, the constant flipping of these switches could have cause the TVA spill. I have investigated these switches and I know they operate something….I found this out the hard way…in a cloud of black smoke and a bright blue spark….but that’s another story.
I would like to report that we now have found peace and comfort in solving the smallest of problems. We now have a garage door opener. I know what you are asking…”So what?”
Well, you see when we moved in we couldn’t find the garage door opener for our garage door. No big deal. We’ll just use the button on the wall mounted door opener in the garage. And this is what we’ve been doing for months. But what you may not realize is the acrobatics that are involved.
Let me explain.
We would load the kids (and usually the dogs) into the minivan and then open the door with the wall button. I would usually then back the minivan out of the garage while THE WIFE patiently waited at the top of the stairs. When I had successfully backed the minivan out of the garage, THE WIFE would then dart down the stairs, while the garage door was closing, and then, because of the laser senor at the bottom that stops the door from closing if something or someone is in the way, THE WIFE would “hop” over the laser…while trying not to hit her head on the descending garage door. It was a sight to see. And the more she performed this move she added high kicks, mid-air turns, and other moves she developed during her years as a high-school cheerleader. It became quite entertaining.
The big problem was when I wasn’t with her to assist in the ‘garage door closing procedure.’ When she was making a trip to the store; she would have to load the kids (and sometimes dogs) into the van, open the door, back out the minivan, put it in park, run back into the garage, hit the button, dart down the stairs, run through the garage, perform her acrobatics, and then she could drive off. And then when she returned home…put the minivan in park, go through the front door and into the garage, open the garage door from inside, get back into the minivan, pull it inside, unload the kids and the close the door from the wall mounted button.
Annoying to say the least!
But last night she finally solved this problem. A simple search for our type of garage door opener on the internet, a call to the store and a quick trip…which meant she would have to perform her acrobatics one more time.
The tiny little remote, which was about $35 was now in hand. A few minutes of reading the manual and…tadaaa….we now have a garage door opener…like any normal sensible American family.
I think I will miss the acrobatics, but we are glad to be basking in the pleasure of a garage door opener.
And you may be asking, “Why didn’t you take care of this sooner?”
The simple answer is that I suck as a husband and I somewhat enjoyed watching my beautiful wife display her coordination every time we went somewhere. You can only imagine how stupid I looked trying to perform the ‘garage door closing routine.’ I am not nearly as graceful.
Oh and by the way, I learned this morning that you should not leave the new garage door opener where a 3 year old can find it. When I left for work this morning, the garage door was half way open…or closed…depending on if you are a half glass empty kind of person. So we have now added the the “NO TOUCH” list. THE MEESTER (our 3 year old) is quite disappointed, but mommy is happy. (There were actual HIGH-FIVES all around when I got the opener programmed and working…sad really when you think about it).