Projects and Door Chimes...

Our house was built in 1975 and needs a lot of TLC. When we moved into our house 4½ years ago, there were these rectangular contraptions plugged into two receptacles. Somehow, we managed to figure out that they are wireless door chimes. The box for the original door chimes is still hanging on the wall in the front hallway, but we soon found out it was not working. A-ha! This must be the reason for the wireless ones, probably purchased at Wal-mart. The wireless contraptions turned out to be pretty handy; we put one in the basement and one in the den. If someone came to the door while we were upstairs, they’d just be out of luck (unless they banged on the front door.)

Sometimes, interference would cause the wireless contraptions to ring. I’d go to the front door to greet my visitor only to find nobody there. Ring-and-Run??? Silly kids. I’d go back to the den and the contraption would ring again. Check the front door, nobody there. Sometimes the thing would “ga-dink, ga-dink, ga-dink, ding-dong!” I don’t know what was up with it, but I just figured it was interference of some sort.

Doug’s been out of work for about 2 months. He’s catching up on projects around the house that he let slide when he was working out-of-town. He took down the paneling in our little hallway between the front hall and the kitchen; there’s a door between the two halls, a door to a bedroom, a door to a bathroom and the door to the basement, as well as the opening to the kitchen all in that little hallway. Oh, not to mention the ceilings in our house are covered in that d@mned “popcorn” stuff! We’re replacing those, too, as we go along. He hung sheetrock, taped, mudded, sanded, primed and painted the walls. He removed the popcorn and sanded the ceiling, painting it a bright smooth white. He’s in the process of replacing all the door trim, but while he waits for coats of paint to dry, he takes on little tasks. Replacing the water line to my new refrigerator; replacing the guts to a constantly running toilet; attacking that door chime box on the wall to see if we can remove it. He doesn’t announce to me which project he’s going to tackle each day; he just waits for me to come home and “discover” what has changed.

Yesterday when I got home, we were discussing what to have for dinner when the doorbell rang. I didn’t feel sociable so I asked him to see who was at the door.

“Me?” he asks.

“Yes. Please?” I responded.

So, dutifully, he heads to the front hall, opens the door and checks. After a minute, he comes back in the kitchen, “there’s nobody there.” And the doorbell rings again. He heads back to the front to check. This time, I follow. Still nobody.

“Oh. Well, maybe it’s the door chimes acting up again.” I say, and remind him how sometimes there’s interference in the wireless contraptions. I hear something inside the house that almost sounds like wind chimes, but my hearing is failing and I dismiss that I heard it from inside the house; surely it was a neighbors’ wind chimes. Still hearing something when I step back in the house, I stop and listen. I’m still hearing the chimes, I think. But I’m not certain.

Doug asks, “what are you doing?”

“I’m listening. I think I’m hearing something.”

“Oh, you can’t hear anything,” he chides.

“I know, right? So, I *thought* I heard something like chimes in the other room.” The chimes are still going… he opens the door between the two hallways and I hear it clearer. It’s the wireless contraption in the den. “See, I *thought* I heard something. That contraption is just acting up.”

Doug heads into the kitchen and I head out to the front porch. I’m curious. I think I’ve tried this before, but I want to try it again. Usually, while there is interference, and the wireless contraptions are doing their own ringing, pressing the doorbell button at the front door does not work properly. I thought I’d try it again to refresh my memory that that was the case. I look at the doorbell button. Funny, I don’t remember it having a light in it. (In my brain, I shrug my shoulders; but, I don’t physically shrug.) I punch the button. “Dinka-Donk!” Brain registering… not the sound I was expecting. Press again. “Dinka-Donk!” Brain saying, “What tha...?” Brain re-registering… The circa-1975 door chimes are working!

Doug is standing in the doorway between the two hallways, grinning. He pulls out of his pocket, the old, non-lighted doorbell that goes with the wireless contraptions.

“YOU BRAT!” I exclaim. “You Brat! Oooh, you’re such a brat!”