How to Make a House Safe
We're meeting with the architect again today to discuss the tweaks we want to make to the Luna plan. I've been doing some research about how to make a home as safe as possible, and here are the main recommendations I've come across:
- Get to know your neighbors: This one is huge! Having people who know you and know what is normal at your house goes a long way to help combat crime.
- Get a dog that barks: Hoss fits this bill!
- Install a security system: We had one at our old house (ADT), but it was a huge pain. It was constantly malfunctioning. We're going to start looking into other options. If you don't install a security system, you could consider buying signs/stickers off Ebay or asking friends/neighbors/family for their extras.
- Install sensor lights around the house: We had solar-powered ones at our old house, and they worked well.
- Install a strong door: There's lot of tips about how to fortify your front door, such as using heavy-duty strike plates, secured with four, 3-inch screws.
- Secure sliding glass doors: You can prevent them from being slid open with "charley bars" or dowels in the track. You can prevent them from being lifted off the track with special pins from the hardware store.
- Put timers on lights: The goal is for your house to look occupied, even when it's not. Leaving your front porch light on all day when you're out of town is a dead giveaway.
If you want to read more detailed information, I recommend this site. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know!
The other thing I'm trying to keep in mind is that--again--I can control the inputs, not the outputs. I can do my very best to make it difficult for our home to be the victim of crime, but I cannot control whether or not it gets burglarized. I should put just enough thought into it to take these preventative measures and to remain diligent on a daily basis (e.g., locking doors and shutting windows before leaving the house), but then I need to let it go. It's hard to enjoy life if you're living in fear.
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2 comments:
If you're wanting to stay away from a "subscription" alarm company, you could always go with something like this: http://www.amazon.com/45117-Deluxe-Wireless-Door-Alarm/dp/B0014A4JWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339067868&sr=8-1
(that is actually the one my boyfriend and I currently have in our home) and then there's also these: http://www.amazon.com/GE-45115-Wireless-Battery-Operated-Magnetic/dp/B00178HMCI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1339067868&sr=8-4 for the windows (which we also have).
No, it's not going to call the police or anything if your house gets broken in to, but the extremely loud noise should definitely scare someone away, and would alert you (if you were home) and possibly even neighbors (if the're close enough) that someone was trying to break in.
There are numerous other ones like those as well. Might be worth a try, since they're so inexpensive! Combine something like that with the stickers/decals like you said, and all of your other plans, and I think you would be good to go!
Good luck and I so look forward to seeing all the progress made with your home & your pregnancy!! :)
My dad was a cop, so I share your paranoia. I may have more than you.
Lights on a timer are worthless. A professional burglar will ring the doorbell in daytime to see if anyone is home; a drugged out thug isn't going to care about a lamp. In my area, almost all random burglary happen mid-day, when everyone is at work. Night is, of course, scarier because you are home.
With a house that open I would install a hell of a lot of motion detectors and glass break alarms. I wouldn't be able to sleep without it. By the time the alarm calls the police, it's usually too late because the noise scared the burglar off, so you could even install the system using a local company and then never activate the alarm call-out part.
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