Home Repair

Last Spring, we pulled the glass out of our storm door and replaced it with a screen.  It’s the first time we’ve done that in the almost 18 years I’ve lived in my current home.  As we took the glass to the garage, it shattered into a billion pieces.  Fortunately, it broke outside so we didn’t have glass all over the house.  It took a while to get it all cleaned up and unfortunately, the frame it was in was no longer useable.

We decided to wait until Fall to replace the door.  Recently, we purchased a nice new storm door.  When the contractor came out to install it, we discovered that the new door would not fit inside the existing 40+ year old frame.  A new door jamb wouldn’t work either because the storm door and front door were purchased as one unit.  Additionally, the existing frame was force fit into place and secured with shims.  There were no screws or nails holding the frame or doors in place.

As a result, our contractor has advised us to additionally purchase a new front door that is already in a frame.  The cost of this project went from not too bad to a lot more.  I’m not terribly upset as our current steel door is beginning to show it’s age and rust out.  Thankfully, we have a home repair fund to take care of issues such as this.  If we didn’t, we’d have to go through the winter without a storm door (yes, it snows where I live), and that probably wouldn’t be a good thing.  So, in this case, because we were prepared for any type of home repair that might come up, we have the money to pay for the installer, we also have enough money to fund the cost of two doors.

Just remember, as a homeowner, you must be prepared to cover the cost of needed and/or unexpected repairs.  Put aside money for those “just in case” moments.  You will, at some point, need it.