The New Door and New Gates

When was it that I called maintenance to come so they could fix the back door and the outside gates? A month and a half ago... The back door was replaced later that week, so I can't complain about that. And whoever it was that made the decision to put some added reinforcement over the screen was truly thinking ahead, and I am appreciative of that. The Boy bangs his paw on the door to either be let out or to come in - you can hear it - and if he doesn't do that then when he gets to the door you can see him standing there - his head comes up over the screen. The Baby, who is not nearly as tall as her big brother, has to get our attention by jumping up so we can either see her or hear her jumping - paws hitting a screen make a distinctive sound. Paws with nails, as they slide down the screen, can also do damage to a screen... That has been remedied... The chicken wire that was used to strengthen the screen was a really good idea!

Yesterday at seven-thirty the doorbell rang and there they were - a truck full of maintenance guys - to replace our gates. They were here working diligently replacing the gates until mid-afternoon. We now have two new aluminum gates which are quite attractive - compared to the old wooden gates that were falling apart and could not stand up to the heat, the sun and the salt-water used to spray them down to clean them occasionally. The locks, however, are going to present a minor problem. Only because I am frantic about the Kids being outside and a gate getting opened. There are no latches that can be locked and unlocked from the inside with a simple twist of a knob - instead, a key must be used. And since yesterday afternoon I have had to run outside and double-checked to make sure the gates are locked each time one of the Kids has wanted to go out to do business... DH is going to have to do something to fix this for me.