Friday, February 05, 2010

Locked out

Something very strange happened today. 

Tom and I were in the house together when I realized that I forgot to get something from my car. 

I put on my slippers and rode the elevator down to the garage, got what I wanted and came back up to our condo. 

When I turned the door handle the latch wouldn't disengage. 

I tried several times turning the handle up and down, but nothing would work. 

My husband heard the commotion and came to the door.

He couldn't get it open either.

Tom took the door handle off from the inside and I had the outside piece, but we still couldn't get the latch to move. 

Now Tom has got a screwdriver out trying to get the latch to move and I can hear the marks starting to form in the trim pieces on the door frame. 

All I can think about at this point is that I am so glad I wasn't alone and that he was still on the inside. 

The neighbors have heard the chatting in the hallway, so they come out to see what's going on.

They don't have any words of wisdom as to how to solve this situation, but now Tom has an audience. 

And with that, the door pops open!

I now have a big round hole in the door, where the door handle should be.  Hopefully we'll get the handle fixed tomorrow.

This was the first time I realized how REALLY inconvenient it is to have only one way into my home.

I have no idea how I would have gotten into the house if no one was on the inside.

Thankfully it all worked out. 

Anyway, the dealbolt is locked and  if I were in a different kind of neighborhood I'd put the old knob back on without the latch, but that's too much trouble. 

9 comments:

Mike Golch said...

well that has never happened to us thank goodness.

Keetha Broyles said...

Something similar to this happened at school one day! My friends Vickie and Shelli were in Vickie's room - - - I TRIED to go in, door wouldn't open. I thought it was locked, tried to unlock it - - - but no.

They tried to get out - - - but no!

Vickie got kinda freaked out!!!

Maintenance had to come, dismantle the door handle to let them out.

When they replaced her lock, they got it upside down compared to all the other doors!

Julie Stiles Mills said...

No fun. I probably would have been freaking out if I was inside. Well. Maybe simultaneously reveling in a forced "lazy day" - as long as I was SURE someone was coming to fix the door.

We once had our front door doorknob fall off when FirstHusband was on a trip. My goal was to get the door to STAY closed so I could get to sleep that night. We went in and out of the garage until he came home.

Lydia said...

Poltergeist?

Anonymous said...

crazy LOL, what if you were stuck on the inside and couldn't get out? good thing Tom is handy with the tools.

Sam said...

how horrible!!! I got locked out of the house once when Dad pulled the door to before I could tell him not to!!! Fortunately we left an upstairs window open and after much effort eventually got back in!!

In fact, I think that subject was my very first blog post about three years ago!!!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

That is a scary thought, isn't it!
What would you have done. How high up are you? Do you have one of those emergency ladders?

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

Glad he was there too. Bummer.....

LLG Denise said...

Jeez, what would you have done if there was a fire between you and the door! I thought 2 exits were mandatory. I would be totally freakazoided.