The Joys of Home Ownership

"There ought to be a room in every house to swear in." ~Mark Twain

You probably think I'm going to rant about the never-ending projects that come with owning a home, right? True, it seems like there are a zillion. And just when you finish one, another pops up and waves a hand saying "Me, me! Time to tackle me next!"

But no, this blog post about home ownership speaks directly to the joys of installing a home alarm system. Oh yes, this is what we did this week.

When we bought our home 3 years ago, it had a system already installed. Not having ever lived in a house with an alarm, and not really having a lot to protect (sorry, kitties), we never got it hooked up. Fast forward three years, and we've since accumulated a few more things and also discovered that the economy has driven up the crime rate, around here anyway. In fact, our neighbors were robbed a few months back. Our house sits up off the road, so we figured it was time to bite the bullet and have the system turned on.

Minor snag: it took 2 days, rather than the promised 1, to fully install and hook up everything. After that, though, things seemed relatively simple: read the book on how to understand the keypad, program in a code, press a few buttons and secure the house for the night.

Major snag: at 2 am that first night, the alarm went off. Nothing like a horrifically loud siren to jar you out of a complete sleep! We both ran around the bedroom like lunatics until we realized we could punch in the code to turn it off. (Meanwhile, the poor cats were almost traumatized)We searched the house and discovered that one of the sensors had gone out. I suppose it was a relief to know that the company called within 30 seconds to make sure we were OK...embarrassed, but OK.

The following morning, we set the alarm (bypassing the one zone that had gone out) and left the house for work. I said to hubby, "You know, let's just wait for the 30-second delay and make sure it doesn't go off again." Sure enough, 31 seconds after we walked out the door, the alarm went off. (I'm sure our neighbors love us by now).

Since then, we've had a repair guy come out and check and test everything...and so far, no further problems. But I figure it's only a matter of time. Sigh. Yeah, gotta love home ownership!