Parents: have a way in
Friday, I was home alone with Junior. Went out to give the dog food and water. As I was gathering the bowls I hear click. Junior had locked me out of the house. I pleaded with her to unlock the door. She just laughed, sat in the floor and took her pants off (yes, she’s still doing that). Fortunately, we have a keypad on the garage that opens the garage door so all I had to do was walk around the house to get in. In the event I hadn’t had said keypad, not sure what I would have done. Call the police? A locksmith? Tell them my 20 month old locked me out of the house?
Still, I found the whole situation hysterically funny. And she did it to me again on Saturday.
She’d been playing with the locks on bedroom doors. Never a big deal because we have those pointy push pins that open up our interior door locks. However, it never occurred to me she’d lock me out of the house. So, for all you parents out there, don’t walk out of the house unless you’re guaranteed access back in. That could have been bad.
March 6th, 2006 at 1:39 am
What, no key under a lawn rock?
March 6th, 2006 at 2:40 am
My wife, ever the one with high security consciousness, insists on deadbolts. Only operable by key. Inside and out.
You will need a key to lock yourself out. (Hard to do.)
The crumb munchers, furthermore cannot easily open the door and waddle out in traffic; or open the door to potential goblins either.
Keep safe.
March 6th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Katie did that to my mom. Locked the storm door behind her. The storm door doesn’t have a keyed lock, so I wound up unscrewing the door frame to get inside. I thought it was pretty funny, too.
March 6th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Worked the opposite way a month or so back. The wife locked me out while takint the daughter for a walk, and the munchkin fit through the kitchen window to unlock the back door. 😉
The reason she was able to get away with it is because I could disable the motion triggered alarm from outside. 😉
March 6th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Keypad operated garage door openers are a great thing, aren’t they???
I’ve hidden a key somewhere in the garage (which has no windows whatsoever, so the only way someone could get in would be to rip the entire garage door off or break down the steel door in back) for just such an emergency.
Should my child lock me out when the power is out, I walk the ~150 feet to my parents’ house and borrow their spare (a trusted neighbor has a spare key, I hope…)
Of course, I have a house key on every keyring, plus a spare in my wallet. Redundancy is a good thing…
March 6th, 2006 at 11:50 am
I too rely on deadbolts. I don’t lock the bottom lock handle when leaving. Crap happens and a deadbolt ensures that you will *never* lock yourself out like that.
wrt the double-key on the dead-bolts; some communities do not allow them. Their logic is that in the event of a fire, a lock on the inside with no key will prevent quick escape. I can understand that, but I still have them. At night I take the interior key out (or when away overnight) and place it nearby out of sight and reach of the door.
In addition to not being able to lock yourself out, the feature I really like about the double-key deadbolt is that in the event that a goblin gains access to the house (e.g. through a window), they will not be able to simply unlock the door and walk out.
If the house has a sliding or full-sized door-wall, it’s a moot point. Although I do have some clients that have unbreakable glass in their doorwalls. It is designed for Florida – it is hurricane proof. It shatters and spider-webs, but maintains it’s integrity unless punctured and cut.
A years ago I added a new feature also mentioned above – I swapped out the locks on the storm doors with mini-deadbolts that have no outside key. In the event of a home invasion, the perp would have to first get the storm door open – which opens outward, so smashing it is not an option – then breach the door. Using steel doors and 3″ throws on the deadbolt – along with steel reinforcements – helps me sleep at night.
Here’s a little known fact – most door breaches succeed because the door “flexes” when struck in the middle, causing the deadbolt to withdraw from the frame. Just as if the lock were turned. Steel doors are less prone to that.
I do have a spare hidden in the garage and the key for the garage is in the dog’s house.
March 6th, 2006 at 11:52 am
We have deadblots but we have locks on the knobs as well.
March 6th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
I had a GF that rented a house with glass doors, so the insides had key-only deadbolts. I brought up the risk of fire, so she went and put a copy of the key on a string and hung it aroind every single door. Whatever.
My rules:
hang my pants near the bed and keep the keys, wallet, whatever in ’em.
never leave the house, even if going to the mailbox, without your keys. When exiting, use the keyhole on the outside to lock the house.
Never lock your car by anyother way than the key on the outside of the car, or the remote that’s attached to your keys