Saturday, June 27, 2009

Homeowner Pains

There is always something, it seems, when you own a home, at least in our case. Just when we think we have everything in top shape, the garage door breaks in a near mangled mess!

Chris came home from work on Friday and asked me what I thought of the garage door. Huh? What are you talking about? I had just mowed, cleaned up, and shut the garage door with out any apparent problems. Come to find out, the screws I was finding all over the garage were from the garage door, causing it to weaken. The bolts and bracket on the door connecting to the garage door opener popped off and the garage door opener part was all mangled. It was a serious mess, not to mention a hazard.

So, I made the call...to my Dad. He fixes everything. He was down within a hour to help Chris diagnose the problem, buy the necessary tools, and eyeball what needed to be done. Chris already had a headache. Our plans for going to the art fair downtown today were blown out of the water. He was not happy.

Saturday morning came, and so did a guy who claimed to give free estimates. Of course, being a garage door salesman, he said we needed a whole new garage door, plus a new opener (which seemed quite strange since we just bought this one last year) costing $1000. Um, what? We still have our home on the market and are continuing to shell out money here and there for small repairs, but $1000 is no small repair! Chris wanted to go for it because our garage door has been a big problem for us. He just did not want this problem to pop up again. He was hesitant to fork out the big money. I, on the other hand, thought the salesman was nuts and wanted to go with my Dad's plan...or at least try!

So, Chris, with no excitement, spent the majority of the day sweating it out in the garage, taking it all apart, drilling new holes, buying parts, remodeling the set up a bit, stabilizing the unit and again and again, and piecing everything back together. In the end, he spent $80 (mostly for a new CORDED drill), and it is fixed. For now, our garage is as good as new (if not better!) Thanks Chris!

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