Posted in Family Matters

We figure the total the burglar made off with is somewhere around $1500-$1700 worth of goods. As we have a $1000 deductible on our homeowner's insurance, we figured we we just take the loss. Then Lenny called.

Lenny is our wonderful handyman, who, when I called him at 5:45 on a Thursday evening, when he was surely headed home in heavy traffic from a long day of physical labor, and told him what had happened with our back door, didn't even hesitate or wait for me to ask, but said, "I'll be right over." He secured the door to the door jamb with five enormous screws, which no crowbar could dislodge. The next day, he sent over a door specialist to have a look at our door.

It's not a typical back door. For one thing, it has an enormous, not-quite floor to doortop single sheet of glass (double-paned and hard to break, thank goodness). For another, the doorjamb is double-wide, and the door shares the frame with a twin that looks like another door, but is in fact just a window, as it does not open.

Unfortunately, it ALL has to be replaced, door jamb, door, and decorative door-like window.

Unfortunately, it won't be cheap.

Unfortunately, the cost of replacing the door is almost two and a half times as much as the cost of the goods we lost!

Now that we are looking at nearly $4000 to fix the door (demo, new parts, paint, cart off debris), we are calling Chubb. Fortunately they have (so far) lived up to their excellent reputation and not giving us any hassle about the claim. So far. We'll see once everything has been submitted.