Dingaling!
posted in Rantings |Sometimes, I cannot believe the previous owners of this house.
About a week ago, I noticed that the doorbell was broken. That is, the little button part was broken and you could see the light bulb. So I mentally made a note to get a new bell mechanism. Today, I was at the despot on a completely unrelated errand, and noticed that el-cheapo buttons were two and a half bucks. So I bought one. Came home, put some food in front of Baby K and whipped out my cordless screwdriver. I figured that it’d be a quick in and out job.
I removed the two screws holding on the broken bell, and it was still stuck to the door. Unsuspecting, I inserted a putty knife behind it and pried it off. I found a whole lot more putty than I thought was necessary… and it smelled like doublemint. The cheeseheads had shoved a big wad of chewed up gum behind the doorbell!
So I chiseled most of it off, reattached the new bell and cleaned up. Then I walked inside, and the bell rang. I found out why they had so much gum in there- the bell was short circuiting across the metal siding. I fixed it up with a little caulk and some freaking electrical tape. Sheesh. Even I can do a better job than doublemint.
