Weather-stripping, storm doors, garage doors...let the fun continue!

Yes, I had an exciting morning. I know it sounds so boring to many, but hey, it's the little things, right?

So, our house is four years old. I have mentioned the people who lived here hadn't painted, and there were some things that were just either unfinished or rough around the edges. For example, the fornt and back doors need repainted because they had a dog. They aren't terrible, but they are scratched. Well, the weather-stripping on the back door was in bad shape too due to said dog. I have had it on my long list of repairs, and I just hadn't had a second to go to Lowes and figure it out. I was in the mood to talk doors today. I want to purchase a storm door (with retractable screen on it) for the back door so I can enjoy some of the cooler weather that will be coming soon. I also need to replace the entire lock set on our storm door on the front door because we were never given keys to it. So, off to Lowes I went to talk doors.

I was very excited to learn the weather stripping wasn't as bad as I thought. Some needs to be special ordered, but newer doors have a piece that just pops out! Yea. So, for $4.xx I was able to fix that problem, and I had it installed in less than five minutes. Above is the new weather stripping. Yes, I'm a dork. Thanks, Lowes for the help and for not treating me like I'm a dumb woman.  Some people do know what they are talking about and believe me, if I need help at a store like that, I will ask.

So, this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about.  This is the framing on the back door.  You can see they tried to patch this, but they didn't do a good job.  The dog scratched the junk out of this, and they tried to mud it (so it looks).  I'll have to sand it down, fix it, and repaint it.  Little annoying (yet fixable) things.  Oh, and people keep telling me, "Oh, I could never do that kind of stuff while my husband is away."  Well, what can I do?  Am I supposed to just live with problems and make some list for him when he comes home in a LONG time?  It's like Survivor, Home Improvement Style.

Okay, so I talked storm doors, and I'll order that soon. They install too (yea).

For the lock, I have to get the serial number and then ordering the piece will put me back in business for that. I'll put that on when it comes. I had to put a new lock and deadbolt on the backdoor this past week for the same reason. That's done, and my doors are being taken care of. I'll be glad to finish up with those. I need to repaint the back door exterior next.

I then went to Sears to talk about a different kind of door...the garage doors. Edward's door clicker stopped working a couple weeks ago. I took it to Batteries Plus, and the guy there said it wasn't the battery; it must need to be reprogrammed (sensed the "dumb woman" attitude). So, I came home and reprogrammed it and nothing. I've messed with it a few times, and everytime nothing works. So, I went to Sears today to purchase a universal remote for the opener (didn't need help there...I had researched them online). I wanted one anyways because our doors are on two different clickers, and they are different doors, so if I want to open one, but I'm in the other car, it's annoying. Anyways, while there, I decided to buy a battery for it (since Batteries Plus guy showed me what battery it took) and try again with the battery. I got home, changed the battery, and what do you know? It had a DEAD BATTERY. I think I told Batteries Plus guy that last weekend (not a good way to do business if you don't sell batteries at a battery store). So, that is working, but I still wanted the double one to open both doors. In a matter of five minutes, I had both doors working on my NEW REMOTE. Yea! I've had plenty of "dud" days where nothing has gone right, but today, I finally had success at a lot of little, annoying home improvement projects.