Actually, DH doesn't like us to use the opener(s) unless we're pulling a car in or out - we have 3 cars, the third gets parked outside, and whenever we use that (oldest but best gas mileage) he has us use the back door of the garage and walk around to the side. He doesn't like us using it as the main door, esp. for things like going outside and working in the front yard (though our faucet is there rather than on front porch, so I have to open the door to water). I don't trust Ds with a key, so he knows the combo and if I've got the garage door closed when he gets home from school, he'll open it rather than going around, but if I've gone out and come back, I'll just leave it open for the rest of the day. I have noticed it's a bit noisier than the one that doesn't have the keypad - maybe we should reprogram it to give that other door some time? Maybe we need to grease the one that gets used all the time? As far as notice, I'm going to think about mentioning a phone call first, hope my dad doesn't take it the wrong way, but DH and I came up with the solution this AM - a driveway alarm. That way I'd have notice of *anybody* coming down the driveway - we have a long driveway, can't see the road (and some people have decided since they can't see the house from the road, they'd drive or walk down to take a look).

IowaCommute, it's a phone not a heart valve. Honestly not trying to be rude, but I have had in the past 2 Pottery Barn phone for years and they worked great. Although I doubt very much that Pottery Barn made it, they probably just design the outside (or copy the design, ðÂÂÂ) and brand it and one of the phone companies make it. ETA: you do bring up a good point about keeping the landline. We have a landline but it's through Verizon fios so it does have a limited battery life in case of power outage. It's something everyone should look into, what happens to your basic utilities in case of long term power outage. This post was edited by kiko on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 16:00

Jim, Are you saying it's an electromechanical one, like the old type? If you take the cover off, you see the two metal chimes and a spring/plunger thing that hits them? I'm assuming all doorbell transformers here just deliver AC current, so there shouldn't be any diffence - however, it probably wouldn't hurt to swap the wires. Ordinarily, with the boiler thing, I'd say aha! but since I assume the bell buttons are the simple mechanical type, I don't see how a surge or spike can make it ring..... I've never wired one of these so I'm not sure how the second button works, but I'd assume at least for the primary connection, the switch is in series, so it breaks the circuit when released - so you push the button, the solenoid strikes and keeps the plunger against the first chime, "ding" then you release, and the spring takes it back, striking the second chime, "dong." How did you wire the new bell, compared to the old one? Did you wire them the same? More importantly, why was the old bell being replaced? You could look at replacing the bell button/s - now here's a thing - are the buttons illuminated? Again, I haven't looked at one, but if I remember, the light goes out when you press it, so the current's there, til you push the button which pushes the current to the bell - so perhaps there's some leakage there. If the buttons are just two wire and no light, I'm baffled.

I don't even use the sparklers unless it is on a birthday cake.... my father was against fireworks except if it was done by professionals. He and my mother shot off a couple of firecrackers when their first 4th of July after being married. The firecracker took off and ended up in the barn full of hay. They had to run into the barn and start pulling bales out to make sure that the barn did NOT catch of fire.... so when my brother and I came along he was ALREADY against having them.... plus when growing up we had lots of droughts and the pastures were EXTREMELY brown. We had several grass fires from people driving by and dropping cigarettes.... so anything that could cause a fire he was against.... Can't say that I blame him, and it made be think about what I might do .... would it .... could it cause problems for others.