We returned from our lovely refreshing vacay to Orlando, Florida on Monday night. We had a wonderful time, celebrating the holidays with my folks, visiting friends and family and seeing the sights around town. It was a good time, but I must admit I'm a bit disappointed that one thing did not live up to our expectations: the weather. From growing up in Orlando, I know that only a few weeks each year in the "swamp" are unusually cold, and these few weeks generally make up what is considered "winter" there. I guess we arrived right in the middle of Florida's "winter", because half the time the temperature was 30-50 degrees! Of course, now that we're back in sub-zero weather, with a couple feet of snow on the ground and in the middle of another snowstorm, 30-50 degrees sounds like heaven.
So it's back to work for me, back to school for Tom, and back to reality for all of us (little Barley, our dog, included). It's great to go on vacation, but it's also nice to come back home. It snowed again while we were gone, and our wonderful neighbors snow-blowed it for us (which Tom's brother discovered when HE came to shovel our driveway, too!). We are so lucky to have so many great people in our lives - from watching our house and shoveling our driveway for us, to welcoming us into their home and feeding us, to petsitting our little "kids" - we are so grateful and thankful for everything you do. Thank you!
While we were happy to discover that our house was still standing under all the snow, the pipes weren't frozen, and we weren't robbed while we were away (always a good thing!), we were upset to discover one thing: our garage door is dying.
Not the best thing to have happen in the middle of winter!
We knew that it was sickly and would have to be replaced sooner or later, but we were crossing our fingers that it would make it through the winter to the spring or summer, when we could replace it ourselves. But our hopes have been dashed.
It looks like the whole thing needs to be replaced, motor, tracks and a new door. Everything is ancient, the motor keeps malfunctioning (with a scary light that blinks), the tracks aren't smooth (causing the door to stop halfway and go back up) and they move around - alot, and last but not least, the door itself is falling apart - literally. We've been manually opening and shutting the garage door (and the lock/latch is sticking now that it's so cold) and each time we do the door breaks apart a little more. What a wonderful thing to come home to!
Although a garage is not a necessity, it certainly is a huge help in the wintertime - cutting hours of snow removal, ice removal, shoveling and defogging time from our traveling each week. And we figure since we have a garage, why not put it to use?
So we are currently trying to decide if we should deal and wait it out until warmer weather and time permits us to install a new one ourselves (also saving money, no doubt) or if we should give in to the pros on this one and hire someone to install it? Considering that we are in the midst of remodeling the rest of our house (and in the case that the door breaks again), the pros seem like a good option (not to mention they could do it in the cold weather, right now). So, we are pondering our options here.
Any opinions/ideas for us?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
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I guess I will throw in my 2 cents and say-"Go with the Pros!". Though your dad and I installed an opener for your grandparents years ago, we didn't have to replace the old door-it was in good shape. But this sounds like it might be a bit more to deal with, even for DIYers like yal. The size of the garage door alone! Whoa! So I say bite the bullet, save your battles for other jobs. =)
ReplyDeleteMom C. (oh, and since we are looking forward to mid 20's tomorrow and Sunday night, with possible snow flurries, those 30-59 degrees you enjoyed while here sound pretty good to me too! LOL)