Doors doors doors

First, I'm super proud of myself because I figured out how to fix the garage door all by lonesome with minimal Googling!  Many thanks to the random commenter who said "Try reprogramming the controllers."  I had not idea HOW to reprogram the controllers, so I got out my little step ladder, found a tiny little button on the back of the big opener box, and TADA!  Both controllers work now.  In a few years I'll definitely replace the entire system and install sensors and a keypad, but for now, this will work just fine.

Second, I hate storm doors.  Really.  The storm door that I had when I moved in never closed all the way.  It was always open a tiny little bit.  I didn't think anything of it until the first weekend in October when it was 40 degrees out and windy.  I was woken up from a great nap with Chloe by a huge CRRRRACK!  The dog started barking and shaking and eventually piddled on herself while I ran around trying to figure out what had fallen over.  When I couldn't find anything inside, thinking a cat did something, I ran through the garage, only to find my storm door blown all the way to one side with a giant crack going down one side.  The glass was intact, but the door would only close a tiny bit.  I put a trash can in front of it then proceeded to call around in an attempt to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do.

One hour and two frozen hands later, I had managed to screw everything apart to get the sheet of glass removed.  After that, it was time to get the door off.  The screws were stripped and bent and the door jamb was in multiple pieces as well.  FANTASTIC.  But at least the offending door was removed, right?

 After being pushed closed, this was as far as it would go.....

 Nice big crack down the side, plus my awesome trash can/keeping door closed attempt

 ALMOST!

 An inside view of the damage.....

Stupid door

I'm pretty much convinced that the previous owner's husband was the Mr. Fix-it type.  Nothing wrong with that....except that he didn't seem to know what he was doing on a lot of little projects.  There were multiple holes in the door jamb, so I'm under the impression that he installed the now-broken door without fully knowing how to do it correctly.  Also, on a sidenote, he's a terrible painter.

Fast forward to mid-November.  I finally decided to get the door replaced.  Eventually I settled on the right door for me, with the glass and screen built-in to make changing them over in the warmer seasons easier on me.  Home Depot offers the $97 storm door installation, so I knew that was the way to go.  They were also able to repair the door jamb for a little bit extra.  The two guys who did the install were great, and one lives in my neighborhood, so now I have his card for when I need something else replaced or repaired.  The door works like a charm and looks great too.

Then the family came to visit.  Somehow, as people were going in and out, the spring mechanism was bent.  I found this out when I got up at 6am the day after Christmas and heard a creepy creaking sound, which turned out to be the door swinging in the wind.  GREAT!  I was able to get the replacement part and a chain to attach to the top to keep it from being opened too far.  I'll admit that I'm afraid to replace the parts myself, so I'll be calling my friendly installer to come fix it, but at least everything is ready.

The lesson learned?  Be careful with pretty new storm doors and have that chain installed BEFORE you open the door to far.

Problem solved!