Locked Out

Our house doors (outside doors) have two locks.  We have the regular lock inside the knob and then a deadbolt.  When the lock inside the knob is locked the knob will still turn from the inside but is locked from the outside.  I used to keep keys hidden in “strategic” hiding places outside because our youngest has locked herself out so many times.  She had taken to keeping her bathroom window unlocked so that she could at least get in that way.  When I painted the trim last year I kind of put an end to that because now all the windows are painted shut!

I have always (when I am home) kept the knob lock unlocked and the deadbolt locked because after locking myself out a couple of times I learned not to lock that bottom lock and shut it behind myself anymore.  I also made sure our neighbor had a key to the house for just such occasions (just in case).  Our youngest never wanted to go ask her for the spare and when she did she never took it back.  I guarantee that there have been no less than a dozen keys to our front door lost.

I also usually park in the garage and come in through the garage door so I don’t need a key because the garage door is shut and what’s the point of locking the door between the garage and house?  Once or twice hubby has locked that door and it really pisses me off because I usually don’t have a key to my own house because I don’t need one.

Before we put the storm door on the front of the house we would occasionally forget that the knob lock was locked and go out to get the mail and lock ourselves out.  It was really a bummer when you’d come back to the door and it would be locked.  Even worse when you went to the “hiding spot” to retrieve the spare key only to find that it had been removed by the previous person who locked themselves out and not replaced.  How hard can it be to put the key BACK when you unlock the door?  Even worse would be when you checked the other 4 or 5 hiding spots and ALL the keys would be gone.   And even worse when as a last resort you have to go disturb your 90 year old neighbor to ask for your key only to find that some other family member had already borrowed it and never returned it.

On the up side it’s a great feeling to know that your house is pretty sound and burglar proof.  BUT… it is NOT a great feeling to have to sit outside in the hot sun, or cold winter or worse yet… the rain and wait for someone to come and let you in your own house.

When I was in Virginia with my brother and his family in the early part of the year poor hubby had just such an occurrence.  And this is WITH the
storm door.  Somehow he went outside to get the mail or something and shut the door behind him.  He had locked the knob lock and forgot and he
was effectively locked out.  I asked him why he didn’t just use the garage door opener in his car and he told me that he had locked his car so he couldn’t get to the garage door opener.  Then he went down to Miss Helen’s (our 90 year old neighbor) and borrowed her key.  He set it on the counter and not even an hour later went outside for something else and shut the door behind him with the spare sitting on the counter.  Poor guy. I can’t remember how he got back in… I think he had to wait for our daughter to come let him in.  It’s just funny that he did it twice in the same night.

Hopefully he has since taken the key back to our neighbor and I did put more extras out in the hiding spot but knowing our family they have already been moved.  Hopefully we won’t get locked out again anytime soon.

This post was brought to you by Mama Kat and her Almost World Famous Writer’s Workshop.

Locked out