Last summer, while at Canadian Tire, El Granto picked up a doorbell cover that was a bit more fitting for our house. Our old one was basic and worked just fine, it was just a bit boring.
For about $10 we picked up this pretty fellow, and one weekend set to installing it.
We needed to drill out a bit of wood around our current door bell for the new one to fit. Unfortunately that’s when things went oh so wrong. While drilling we accidentally cut the two wires for the doorbell…oops.
We figured we could just pull out some more wire from the wall, strip back the wires, reconnect the new doorbell and be good. HAHA no. Our spray foam had a death grip on our doorbell wires and there was no way we were getting any more wire out of the wall. Okay then, perhaps we can wire things using the stubs of broken wires, some tweezers and little strips of electrical tape. Almost, then I broke of the stub of wire that was left. Seriously? WTF house? Delivery men already had trouble finding their way to our door, that’s why we painted it bright red. Without a doorbell, Thai food deliveries were sure to go undelivered while the delivery guy paces the street.
So we threw in the towell and pondered what to do next. Over Christmas my lil brother was visiting. He is what you would call an expert in a/v systems and wiring (he worked as an installer putting in expensive whole home a/v solutions and cool things like TV’s that hid behind paintings etc.) So I said brother, I love you, fix my doorbell. He showed us where the doorbell wires were located in the basement, but told me I was on my own as he didn’t have his tools. Armed with his advice we set to trying to re-wire the doorbell last weekend. We THOUGHT we had it right, but no matter what we did the damn doorbell still wouldn’t work. We were screwed.
Then El Granto threw off his gloves and proceeded to track the entire electrical system for the doorbell throughout the house, created an extensive wiring diagram, and FIGURED IT OUT! So many colors of wires, so many weird connections, but he managed to beat it! Take that doorbell!
He installed our new fancy doorbell, and we waited for the delivery driver to bring us some Greek food for dinner.
Then the phone rings, it was the delivery guy. I asked him (in an exasperated voice) “why didn’t you ring the doorbell!” He said he was at his car still (is our house flagged as undeliverable?) He then came to the house and KNOCKED ON THE WINDOW! Huza-what? Couldn’t he see that we El Granto worked very hard all day to provide him with the ease of a very good looking doorbell? Didn’t he appreciate the work we did? Ungrateful delivery guy, I want my tip back…
*EDIT: Apparently today is a ding dong kinda day, the good folks over at Young House Love coincidentally also posted about doorbells today. I wonder if their delivery guy can find the front door?*
