Busted

Remember how our house got broken into right after we bought it? No? I mentioned it here...


Anywho, about 2 weeks after we settled on our house we came home to a new lock on our backdoor. Weird? Yeah, I thought so too.


The first thing we did the day that we settled was change the locks to pretty new ones. Well, I thought they were pretty because they were no longer ugly brass, but it was more for the safety of keeping the old owners out then ascetics. So of course I would notice that the brass was back and the dead bolt removed!



Since we were down to only one car, I had to pick Kevin up after I finished work to run to pick up his the title to car (RIP Maxi!). Otherwise we would have been home working on the house (like we were every night before) when this happened.

Back note: The week we settled was the absolute craziest week of my life. Seriously. Don't think I ever posted it, but that was the week that not only did we settle on the house, but we found out we were expecting AND Kevin's car got totaled. Hello craziness! Oh, and our niece was born :-)

When I opened the door I was greeted by this beauty. Anyone house hunt lately? I'm sure you have seen plenty of these.


Yep, it's a realty lock box.

Seem strange?

Why would a house that we JUST bought have a lock box again?

Why would they go through the hassle of busting down a solid steel door that was dead bolted to put it on?


I was not a happy camper that someone broke into our house, our NEW house, and changed the locks on us! Then I saw the damage they did to our NEW house...




A steel door might not budge too much, but the wood framing that it's in does...

Ouch!

After the police report was filed we shoved all the living room furniture, which happened to still be living in the dining room, in front of the door. It was dark out and I wasn't about to stay in the house by myself while Kevin ran out for a new lock (what if they came back!), and I didn't want to leave the house empty because, well, what if they came back!

The next day we got new locks...

The door got a seriously bang up job!

We later discovered that it was in fact the bank who had it done. Apparently someone dropped the balled and never told the foreclosure department that our house was settled. So when the paperwork went through a week and a half later, they proceeded like they would any other foreclosure. As upsetting as it was, I was glad we settled when we did or else we would have found ourselves in a whole other house mess! And after all we went through, I can't image how much worse that would have been.


So why am I dredging up old memories of something that happened almost a year ago? Well my friend, for almost a year we have been living with the door and door jam looking like the above pictures. Busted up and ugly. I'm sure it killed us in the winter since it doesn't quite seal up nicely like doors should. Shocking? Yes. Pitiful? Yes.

Do you know how expensive it is to replace not just a door, but all the framing along with it? After just signing our life (and savings) away for the house, and the projects that HAD to get done (um there's a reason why our living room furniture was hanging out in the dining room...it had no floor!) Our house looked like this only a few weeks before...and while we're good at doing things on the cheap, it still cost moolah.

Our realtors starting talking to the bank in an effort to get them to reimburse us. Week after week and month after month no word. Finally towards the end of April Kevin's dad decided to take it on as his personal mission to see this thing through to completion. After getting passed around to about 20 different people (no lie! He has a list of everyone!), we received our reimbursement check in the mail last week! Woohoo!!!! Finally!!!

We quickly booked a good friend of ours who had given us the quote for the project to begin with and we have a new door!

No more cracked wood!!!

OMG! I love it! Can't believe I have slept in this house a total of 5 nights without having a busted door.






And want to see what happened to the dead bolt?




Be prepared...the image may be disturbing...



This is *suppose* to help keep you safe and may it tougher for someone to break in, right?



Makes you think twice about how safe a deadbolt really makes your home...

Looks like he put up a good fight, but didn't stand a chance!