Keys, Alarms and Dampness.

All the papers have been signed, so it looks like the deal is done. Due to a scheduling mishap, we get the actual keys to the house tomorrow. Woot!

The keys... Ha! Here's a little amusing side story: apparently there are no known keys to the front door of the house. Turns out Ms. Serpico never used the front door. She only used the back door, so she eventually lost track of the keys for the front. I can see why she'd prefer the back door, though--the driveway leads right to it, there are no steps, it opens into the kitchen... yeah, makes sense. The front steps are kind of steep, too, so I can imagine an older person wouldn't want to mess with those. And, as an added bonus, she also somehow misplaced the key to the garage, so that's just unlocked all the time, and it can be automatically opened by simply pressing a door-bell-like button. You'd think someone named Serpico would be a little more security-minded, huh? Guess not.

We'll need to get new locks for the front door and the garage door, I guess... or have them re-keyed.

Re-keying seems like a good idea, right? I mean, we wouldn't have to buy anything new or replace anything, and the locksmith (who would obviously be a highly trained pro) would be able to come and handle that business on site for about $75 ($45 for the visit, and ~$10 per cylinder.) That seems reasonable to me. Plus, it wouldn't involve me buying kits of some sort and then figuring out the proper method for installation... and almost definitely screwing it up. Although... I am pretty sure I wouldn't screw it up. It's a lock. I have never installed one, but I doubt it's beyond my range of skills. I have some faith in myself.

Replacing the locks on my own... hmm... that's gonna be cheaper, for sure. It's basically a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's (or a hardware store) and an expenditure of maybe $18 for the front door deadbolt. That idea has appeal because it's cheap. And, again, I'm pretty sure I can do it myself.

Having said that much, I'm also sure that my common sense would abandon me (some say it was never doing anything but paying an occasional visit, anyway), and I'd come home with this thing...
Honestly, it looks pretty sweet to me, and we do love techy stuff... but not at five times the cost of a normal deadbolt. That's kind of silly. But just a paragraph ago I was willing to pay someone about the same amount to come and re-key the existing locks. Hey, I'm just weighing my options, OK?

And, speaking of security, we were informed that the alarm system in the house is only semi functional. I think it was installed ages ago, and it hadn't been used for a while. So if we want to make use of this thing, we'll have to get in touch with the alarm company and have a rep come out to update it. I don't know a lot about the way alarm systems are installed, but this one has some sort of transformer living in the attic, and, from what we've been told, it buzzes. Well, since the attic is accessible via Xavier's room, you can bet we don't want any buzzing noises waking up the little man at night. I think we'll just disconnect the transformer for now. We can worry about having an alarm system later. Yeah, so there you go, all you would-be burglars... we won't have an alarm for a little while. We will, however, have two large adults living there, both of whom have extremely strong protective natures. Also, Mack the Attack turtle will be roaming the house, and seriously, you don't wanna mess with him. He's been known to send rottweilers running off, yelping, with just a hard stare. You've been warned.



The sellers also let us know that the basement needs to have a dehumidifier running at all times, and they're not leaving one for us. Bummer. I thought it smelled kind of musty down there when we checked out the house before. Looks like we're going to have to invest in a good dehumidifier, but that's fine--I kind of figured we'd need something like that. I think I have a good one picked out, too.



The reviews are almost all positive, and the price is fair, I guess. According to the info I've seen on this 70-pint dehumidifier, it should do the trick for our basement. I know we could spend something like $1K on a dehumidifier, but screw that... it shouldn't be necessary to spend that much money clear up our space, and, as I mentioned, the Frigidaire unit I like seems to work really well for just about everyone who reviewed it. I just want our basement to be a functional, pleasant space... with no musty smell or mold. Ew.

In more positive news, the sellers are leaving the hutch and buffet for us. They heard Avy commenting about the furniture, and they decided to be nice and leave both pieces. That was sweet of them, I think, especially since Avy and I have decided the best move would be to try and sell the hutch... we can get a few bucks for that thing, and, ya know, those fancy dehumidifiers and deadbolts don't come cheap.