Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home Improvement Show, built by Par Lumber when it comes to big or small projects around the home. Tony and Corey, you've got the know-how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend Warriors, Tony and Corey. Hey, welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home
Speaker 2 00:00:23 Improvement Show podcast. I'm Corey Valdez. I'm Tony Crookston. Thanks for, uh, catching up with us today and listening. Today we're talking about home security. I'll tell you what, this is the perfect time to be talking about it cuz I feel like when I am coming and going from home to work, it's always dark. It's dark so much. Yeah, it's dark. It, yeah. You go when it's dark and you come home when it's dark is, and the darkness is the sort of the blanket of, of protection that those who would seek to do you harm or take from you is just what they need to come and go secretly. <laugh>, you know, actually I think that break-ins like crime, the numbers don't support that. I think a majority of break-ins happen during the day, believe it or not. Really? Yeah. I'm actually gonna Google that. Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 2 00:01:22 I just feel like when it's, um, when it's dark and cold outside, and maybe it's just because you feel a sense of security, being able to see all of the things around you. You look out the window and you can see all the way around the house and you think nobody's gonna be out doing something during this time. So you feel like more secure. Yeah. So according to the F B I in 2017, there was 1.4 million burglaries with 57% of all burglaries involving, involving forcible entry. There are 2.5 million burglaries annually in the United States. Every 15 seconds a home burglary occurs. So what just happened? Tony <laugh>, there was somebody was burgled somebody, somebody was just, just got burgled. Somebody was just burgled. <laugh>. Yeah. Uh, a break-in occurs every 26 seconds. Homes with a security system are 300% more likely to be broken into and burglarized, oh, sorry.
Speaker 2 00:02:24 Homes without a security system. Yeah. That seemed like a weird statistic. <laugh> uh, homes without a security system are 300% more likely to be broken into. And burglarized, 46.9% of people don't have a home security system. 83% of would be burglars check for the presence of an alarm system before attempting a break-in. Interesting. 34% of burglars use the front door. 34%. Wow. They just smash that sucker in. You know, and that's kind of the interesting thing that, you know, Tony and I, I have talked about this subject many times over the years and I feel like, well, I don't feel like it, the numbers support it, but burglary is usually a crime of opportunity. People see something, they want it, and they break in and they get it. Or, you know, I'd be really curious to, to see what the statistics on porch pirates are now.
Speaker 2 00:03:22 Oh yeah. That's huge. Now, you know, the rise of, of Amazon and how many packages get delivered every single day to streets. I mean, there are people that literally follow the Amazon driver around running up to front porches and grabbing their packages. And not to mention how much that's increased since the pandemic when with the pandemic, nobody was going out and shopping. Everybody was utilizing home delivery. And so deliveries to the home Right to the front door became very, very common. Very commonplace. Oh yeah. For me, especially, I mean, we, we bought so much stuff online cuz nobody, we didn't wanna go to the store, but if you're not there, you're kind of inviting that, uh, that opportunity. Yeah. I mean, I see advertisements on TV for purchasing your car online. I know that's kind of crazy. Purchase your car online and have your car delivered to your house. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:04:17 Could you imagine, because you didn't wanna leave the house to go buy your car <laugh>, you didn't want to sit in the seat and feel how comfy it was or use the stereo and, and hear how, how clear it sounded. You didn't want to decide whether or not the paint job in, you know, in the sunlight. How did that look? You just, you just saw a picture of a car online, you read statistics about it and you bought it online and had it delivered to your house. Yeah, no, I get it. I mean, here's the thing. Who wants to go in and sit in the seat of the salesperson, you know, calling their manager over and negotiating you into something, you know, some crazy contract. You just do it all online. I don't think people want to do that part, but that's the price you pay to choose your car based on all of the things that you see when you are, when you're test driving it and getting a feel for that horsepower <laugh> or you know, what the turn signal sounds like when you turn it on.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 Is that gonna annoy me? <laugh>, you know, I mean, is do the, do the tires hum when you get up over 55 miles an hour when you walk, when you walk up to the car and you're looking at it and you're thinking, wow. I mean, a picture just doesn't seem to do that. Yeah. For me. And then I pay the price of dealing with the sales guy for however long and then he's sliding papers across the desk. <laugh>, you're sliding papers back here is my lowest number. <laugh>. And he says, let me talk to my manager. Yeah. <laugh>, she comes over and says, here's the best we can do. Yeah. Oh man. It's the worst car. Buying is the worst. Yeah. But you, you can really get a good sense for how secure the car is when you are, when you get a chance to, you know, rattle the door or, you know, unlock it with the key fob, which you can't do any of that online.
Speaker 2 00:06:13 I don't know. It's true. Security is very important. True. We kind of got off, off, uh, we did off topic there for just a second, but a lot of things are being delivered to homes. What if you ordered your car online, it got delivered and stolen before you ever even got a chance to sit in it. You just leave the keys on the top of the wheel <laugh>, you know, under the wheel. I'm just leaving the keys under the wheel. Well, yeah, we just left the keys in. It seems like a safe neighborhood. Somebody watching Yeah. Could see that. We're gonna talk today about obviously home security. Talk about some of the things you can do to make your home more secure. Things that you can do that, uh, don't cost you any money at all. Things that you can do that will cost you some money.
Speaker 2 00:06:52 Things that you can do that will make your home more valuable when the time comes to sell it. Well, I think any sort of home security in general, d i y home security is what I'm gonna call this show. Essentially, uh, you, you're adding, you're increasing your property's value because if you're adding extra heavy duty deadbolts or if you're adding, uh, nice landscaping with lighting to help with security, you're adding, you know, you're making your house more attractive. I can think of to potential buyers. I can think of one, um, exception to that rule. What is that guard dog, <laugh> guard dogs, while effective, have a tendency to reduce your home value. Well, yeah. Yeah. I guess if you left him, well, the guy breaks in, he bites the guy blood all over the place. You gotta clean that up. You know, they, they break lamps and tear up the couch.
Speaker 2 00:07:48 Well, depending where you are, they might even be able to sue you <laugh>, which would be bad. <laugh> very bad. Uh, yeah. But anyway, home security in itself, <laugh> I feel like raises your property value for potential buyers to come in and say, oh, you have a security system. Yeah. I think that that is value, that is added value. Well, there's no question about it. Uh, but, but in order to have that, of course that costs money. But we are gonna talk about the things you can do that do cost money, things that don't cost money. Right. Let's get started. Like, what's the very first thing as a homeowner that someone should do in order to prepare to improve the security of their home? What, what's number one? Well, probably the, the, in my opinion would be to c do an assessment. Walk around your house, look at potential weaknesses and if you don't particularly know what to look for, have somebody that does.
Speaker 2 00:08:46 Sometimes you can talk to your local police department and sometimes, I'm not saying they will, but depending on where you are, sometimes a police officer will come over and give you tips and walk your house with you and then offer suggestions on things that you can do to prevent break-ins. I agree with that. I'm going to, um, I'm gonna kind of take that a step further. And this really encompasses a couple of more things we were gonna talk about a couple points. I'm probably jumping ahead, but you can fix it. How about this? You build relationships with the homeowners around you, the home, across the street, the home on the left side of you, the home on the right side of you. Build relationships with these homeowners. If it's a possibility for you, if it's an opportunity, build a relationship with them and then you can utilize them while you are not at home to keep an eye on things when you're not there.
Speaker 2 00:09:44 Uh, these people could be, they could come and get your mail for you if you're gonna be gone for an extended period of time. They could, um, you know, you can communicate them with them while you're gone and find out if there's sp suspicious activity or you know, that sort of a thing. Knowing your neighbors, one rules them out as a suspect or a potential Well rules them out. I'm saying if you build a relationship with them, <laugh> a legitimate relationship with them. If you're a burglar, you're not gonna burglarize someone you have a relationship with. Yeah. I mean, I guess the chance of it is lower. How about this? How about this? The, the opposite of that is to be at odds with your neighbor who knows when you're gone and when you're not. Oh, sure. So that increases the likelihood that they would not try to, to protect you from harm.
Speaker 2 00:10:35 A hundred percent. I mean, here's some things that I have done. I have befriended all of my immediate neighbors in my vicinity. Two houses, three houses down. Yeah. And we all look for each other. We look out for each other. If we see weird activity going on across the street, if I see cars I don't recognize, sometimes I'll text him. Yeah. I'll say, Hey, there's, uh, <laugh>, some, some guy sitting in the car. Sitting in the car or walking around and in or your home. Yeah. Are you expecting someone? Right. Oh yeah. That's so-and-so. Okay. Just letting you know. Yeah. And I expect, I've had calls from my neighbor that said, Hey, you left your garage open. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, you know, sometimes you push that button on your way out and maybe a little box has falling down and blocked the laser. Yeah. Seeing eye it goes back up.
Speaker 2 00:11:23 Goes back up and you don't know. Have no idea. Yeah. I've had neighbors call me and do that. I've had neighbors come over and pick up packages for me, knowing for a fact that I was gonna be on vacation or out of town and I knew something was showing up. I've had them go over, I've had people check my mail. You know, you always, that you remember back in the day, they would say, oh, halt service on your newspaper. Not that anybody gets newspapers anymore. <laugh>. But that was kind of a, a clear identifier that if you had a stack of newspapers on your front porch Right. You had, you could be an easy target. Sure. Nobody's home. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's kind of the same principle. If you've got 12 Amazon packages sitting on the front porch, you know, somebody's gonna look at that as a jackpot.
Speaker 2 00:12:04 That's an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. Potential. Uh, yeah, I would say so. So that was part one. Build relationships with your neighbors. You can utilize them in that way. Here's something else they can do for you. You can walk around your home with your neighbor or maybe just a good friend or a family member, and they will be able to look at the outside of your home and the security of your home with fresh eyes. They have a different perspective about how they feel the exterior of your home is as far as secure. Right. And that can help you to draw a plan of things that you need to address while you are trying to make your home more secure. Yeah. Um, some other things that you can do for free, um, would be to create a security plan and to explain it to your family.
Speaker 2 00:12:56 You know, if you have kids, sometimes you have to explain to them, Hey, don't forget to lock the door when you open the front door, say to grab an Amazon package. When you close it, relock it, you know, explain all of the security routine, the details that you have grown up with and you implement in your home. Make sure that everybody with you knows those and why. So that's, uh, that's something you can do for free. Yeah. You actually alluded there to, to another really good point. Have a security routine. You know, I, I work in retail and I am responsible for locking the place up when the last person is gone. And I have a routine. I move to make sure that the lights are out in, in rooms, you know, one through seven. I make sure that the exterior doors are locked in all of the entry points of the building.
Speaker 2 00:13:53 I make sure that all of the components are turned off, that the open sign is off, that the computers are logged off. And then I go to the very last room, which is where the alarm is, set the alarm, lock that door out the gate, lock the gate, and then I know that everything is secure and I do it exactly the same way every day. It's your routine. So it's so easy to make sure that I don't miss something, an open window or an unlocked door or something like that, that could leave, um, an opportunity for breach in the house. So build a security routine that you follow regularly that can really help. Absolutely. Did you know that creating, uh, or having a, a home security or DIY home security or any, any sort of home security that you install in your home can potentially lower your insurance premiums?
Speaker 2 00:14:45 Oh, I mean, I think I didn't know that, but that makes perfect sense. Of course. Yeah. It's, uh, it's the, the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah. That is definitely, uh, that's a money saver that, that, that comes back to you in green for sure. All right. So let's talk about some things that people can do to their home, some actual things that you can do. Okay. Besides creating a plan, uh, and some other tips that we will we'll sprinkle in there. Actually, one more tip I wanted to give you is not, and you've probably heard this before, but don't post on social media that you're on vacation <laugh> or going on vacation. If you still have a landline and an answering machine, <laugh>, your answering machine message should not be, we're on vacation in France. We'll be back in three weeks. <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That's kind of one of those things that you don't think about because when you post on social media, some people are very careful about who their friends are and who can see their profile, others aren't.
Speaker 2 00:15:43 Right. So if you have a profile and you're putting on there that you're gone, you're kind of just leaving yourself open for a potential Yeah. Problem. Yep. Absolutely. So here's some, there's a few other things you can do inside the home that is actually adding security measures but isn't really much of an expense. If you have windows that slide horizontal sliding windows or vertical sliding windows, right. Single hungs or horizontal sliders, you can actually add a, a piece of what, a dowel or some sort of length of material in the track behind the sliding panel that would disallow the panel from being slidden. Uh, sometimes slidden slidden. Yeah. Slidden. Uh, sometimes better <laugh>. Sometimes someone can, especially older windows, you can sort of rle that vent enough that the latch can come unlatched and then you could open it. But if it's blocked on the inside, uh, the patio door slider or the window slider, if it's blocked on the inside, then it will not come open.
Speaker 2 00:16:51 Yeah. Even if the latch is compromised, you know, something else you can do with windows or big sliding glass doors is install security film. So you could essentially turn the window, um, into a laminated piece of glass. Exactly. Yeah. Which makes it very, very difficult to get. Very, very difficult to take a hammer to. They can break it, but getting a hole in it so that you can get your hand in there so that you can unlatch the window so you can get it open and get in, makes that very difficult. Right. And really we know that, like you mentioned earlier, that robbery is a crime of opportunity. Well, if they hit the window and it doesn't break through and they hit it a couple more times and it doesn't break through, they're less likely to spend a lot of time there. Right. Trying to get in.
Speaker 2 00:17:39 At some point they will just flee. They've created noise. Yep. They've raised suspicions. Yep. And they're looking for that smash and grab, they're just out of there. Right. You're absolutely right. I agree. Uh, another thing thing you can do is reinforce your entry points. If you don't have already, you can install deadbolts. Um, make sure you secure windows with locks. You can get, uh, there's different things you can get for your entry door that are extra latches, like a chain, one of those little security chains Exactly. Like you see on a hotel door. Yeah, exactly. Those are viable things, especially if you are worried about a home invasion. There's a lot of home invasions that happen, and what they'll do is they'll knock on your door and then as soon as you open it, they'll push their way in. Try to push their way in.
Speaker 2 00:18:26 Yeah. But if you have a positive lock somewhere there that doesn't allow them to do that, that's just a really good added security benefit. Yep. I agree with that. There's something else that you can do where a door is concerned. Uh, entry doors, oftentimes, most of the time entry doors open into the house, the door swings in. Right. And so you can buy a bar that's got a little u-shaped, uh, thing at the top, and that u-shaped thing fits right underneath the door handle. And then the bottom has got a rubber foot on it and you, you get that down, it sets down on the ground and you just push it up in there tight and that disallows the door from swinging in so they can kick it and hit it and, and, you know, do a lot of things to it before that bar will move or allow them to actually gain access.
Speaker 2 00:19:13 Yeah. Uh, sticking with that same front door, uh, you can install peepholes. A peephole seems like a really simple thing, but at least you'll be able to screen who you do and who you don't open the front door for. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, another thing you can consider with the front door if you're replacing it, is to get a Therma true door, which is a really strong fiberglass entry door system, but you can get what's called a three point lock. It's an, it's a system that's installed at the factory in the door that actually locks the, the, the latch side in three locations at the top, the middle and the bottom. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it is extremely difficult to kick one of those doors in. And here's another tip is if you are, if you are trying to secure your entry door, whether you're replacing it with a multi-point locked door or adding a deadbolt or whatever you're doing, you can, you can add three or four inch screws with the right head on them that matches the screws that hold your hinges in.
Speaker 2 00:20:23 And you can open your door, remove one of your hinge screws from each one of your hinges, and replace that with a three or four inch screw that goes through the jam and into the stud, the king stud that, uh, that your door is hung inside of. And so that will really add security. It, it secures the jam to the framing of the wall, both on the hinge side and also on the latch side where the, uh, where the strike plate is on the latch side, you can remove those short little three quarter inch screws Yeah. And replace them with three or four inch screws. Very careful not to overdrive those screws and cause that jam to suck in there. Um, but that is another way to secure the jam to the framing of the home so that the jam can't just be broken. Right.
Speaker 2 00:21:13 Yeah. The best time to do that is when you're installing it. Right. Because when the trim is off, and if you're worried about, like Tony said, sucking the jam in what you're, what you're essentially doing is Boeing that jam out and then you're making the door not fit well into that jam, or it would be difficult for the door to actually latch in the lock. Right. Yeah. So what you can do if you're afraid of that, is pull the trim, you can pull the trim on the jam side and the trim on the hinge side. And then when you go to screw that in and you wanna really make it tight, you can use shims against between the jam and the framing. So that way you're compressing against those shims, not allowing it to Right. Bow the jam. That's a really good way to secure your entry door, your side door, maybe the man door to the garage or your back door.
Speaker 2 00:22:02 Uh, all of those exterior doors can be secured that way. Yeah. That was a good tip. Uh, here's a free one. Hide your valuables. You know, what do they always say? If you're getting your, your car broken into, it's because you had something that they could see that see through the window, it was worth something to them. Yeah. If you're leaving your purse or your wallet right in the center console for someone to see, or your laptop, it's, it's gonna make that opportunity for that criminal to say, well, there's something right there. Right. I'm just gonna take it. And this same thing goes for in your house, if you have valuables that you could see through a window than a, than a crime is more potentially more likely. Right. I actually had this conversation with someone recently about getting a safe. It's really, that's a really simple solution.
Speaker 2 00:22:51 Safes aren't crazy con expensive. If you, even if you got a smaller one, I've heard this argument, well, you could just take, pick a small one up and take it with you <laugh>. Not if you bolt it to the floor. Right. Which is the way it's intended to be. Right. To be done, to be solved. Most safes have bolt holes in the bottom that you can either lag down to your floor in your house or in your garage, concrete, whatever. So if you're gonna get a safe, bolt it to the floor. But we had this whole conversation about getting a safe and he was gonna put his in his garage and he said, well, I don't know if that's a good idea, because now potentially people driving by can look in and see that you have a safe in your garage. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don't know what I feel about that.
Speaker 2 00:23:34 Well, well, it's not gonna be sitting in the middle of your garage facing the street. I mean, you're probably gonna have it tucked in behind your refrigerator or next to your toolbox or wherever it's gonna be. Well, potential an inconspicuous spot for it in the garage. Yeah. If you're gonna have it in the garage. Um, I think that's, so that's what I told him. You know, he, he actually built his, or he put his into a space or, or against a wall in his garage that was really visible from the street. So I said, well, one of two things, you can make sure that you're only accessing that safe when your garage door is closed. Or b I said, build a little wall Yeah. Next to it. Yeah. You know, you could build, build a cabinet around it. Yeah. Build a wall there, two by four wall, bolt it to the floor, bolt it to the ceiling, whatever, nail it in.
Speaker 2 00:24:22 And that would just completely conceal it, it would hide it 100%. And he was like, that's a pretty good idea. So here's another idea. Uh, lock your garage door. I mean, if you have a garage door opener right? Then the garage door is not going to be as easy to get in. It's not gonna be easier to get in than it would anywhere else in the house. If someone's going to break into your house and they're not necessarily pinning the success of their operation on an easy entry, well then they're gonna come through the window or they're going to, uh, break down the door or whatever they're gonna do. The garage doors not necessarily the easiest place to make entry. Not necessarily, but I've actually, we've seen them, there's videos out there where people can take a coat, hook, a piece of, uh, just a metal coat hook, reach in where that little emergency pull knob is.
Speaker 2 00:25:17 Yeah. The release in front of the garage door, and then fish for that thing and pull it, and you release the mechanism that'll, that will raise and lower your garage door. Basically, essentially removing it. Well, that's another really good tip. So you can pull it and then open the garage door. Another really good tip, if, if you have a garage door opener, it's a good idea to tuck that little release rope that hangs from your garage door opener, tuck it up. It doesn't need to be hanging down where it can be easily accessed. Yeah. If you, if you're like me, I think I've only used that thing ever once or twice. Yeah. In the history of ever owning a garage door with an opener, with an opener. <laugh>. I mean, honestly, it's, it's a situation where you would only use it if you have a power outage or something like that.
Speaker 2 00:26:04 It's a pull release, it just releases it from the track. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But yeah, if you don't need to access it, there's no reason to have it hanging down easily accessible from someone fishing it from outside. Another really good tip, if you are parking your car in the driveway and you have a garage door opener in your car, well, don't leave it clipped to the visor. Right. Everyone can see that if they get in your car, then they can get in your house. Yeah. Easy access. It's, it's a good idea to keep that in a console or, um, someplace where it's not, not hidden easily seen hidden, hidden from si from view. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, another one that I was thinking of in the garage is the garage door. If you're gone for an extended period of time, you can actually take a lock, like a keyed lock or a padlock of some sort and put it through the track on your garage door.
Speaker 2 00:27:01 That way it makes it impossible to open the garage door. Even if they were somehow able to break into your car, get a garage door opener, it'll just stop. It physically won't allow the wheels to roll up right through the, okay. They roll in sort of a c shaped track. The wheels roll inside there and there's actually holes in that track and you put a, a, a lock on there, uh, whatever it is, a combo lock or a key lock, uh, the wheel can't pass that lock as it is through that track. Right. Yeah. When I was a kid, my dad actually would take vice grips. He had vice grip clamps that he would put on there, on each side because he was a, a mechanic, a home mechanic, and he had lots and lots of money and tools in his garage. And we would, when we would go on vacation, he would put those on there ensuring that no one could easily open the door, open the door and get to his livelihood.
Speaker 2 00:27:57 Exactly. So, yeah, that's very important. Here's what's pretty's inexpensive one. Here's a, here's a a pretty inexpensive one as well. If you do not have a home security system, a monitored or unmonitored home security system, well, what you can have is you can have signs or stickers that indicate that you have a home security system. I have heard of people that put signs up outside the home, stickers on the windows, this home secured by whatever that name happens to be. Right. And um, you know, in the instance that it's a crime of opportunity, they're gonna see a home that is clearly marked as a home with an alarm system and say, that's not the one I'm choosing. Right. Right. I, I don't want to have to contend with alarm system. Is that real? I don't know. Do I want to take that chance? Probably not.
Speaker 2 00:28:54 Probably not. Potentially. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is any, any home security measures you take are almost all 100% not foolproof. You know, you can, you can do almost anything barring hiring a security team <laugh> 24 hours with a guard shack, <laugh>, you know? Yeah. Almost, almost every situation, if somebody really wants to get into your house and you're not there is they're gonna get in, you know, whether they get in and then there's a loud blaring alarm going off. They might only have a minute. Yeah. But you know, most crimes only take less than a minute. Yeah. They're gonna see something, they want it, they're gonna grab it and then get out. So, but these are just deterrents. Um, another really good thing to do that it's free mm-hmm. <affirmative>, is to create an inventory of everything that you have in your house. Oh. That is of anything of value.
Speaker 2 00:29:48 Yeah. Your insurance company will actually tell you to do this. Take pictures document if you have receipts, take pictures of those, document everything you have that's good for two things. Burglaries and potential fires. If you were to have a fire in your home and you burned up $20,000 in artwork, it's gonna be really hard to prove that. You to prove. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Unless you have it documented. The other thing is, is if you have insurance, don't think that it will cover everything in your house if you don't tell 'em about it and they say, well, I tell you what you have, you know, $250,000 in coverage. Right. And that's just not covered. Right. You might be out. Right. So it's always a good idea to talk to your insurance company about what you have, especially if you have high dollar items, expensive artwork, you want to get, you know, some sort of policy or umbrella policy or something that covers that, cuz it won't, pictures is a good idea.
Speaker 2 00:30:48 Video is an even better idea. Sure. If whatever it is to document it. Yep. Take your video camera and just walk through the entire house and try to look at everything. Uh, sometimes you'll even see things in the video that, that you didn't think to, to make a big deal about. Right. But, um, it's a good idea to have that and then, and then store that information in a place that's not gonna end up in a, you know, in a lost in a fire or something. Right. I always say store in a cloud, pay for a cloud service. Whi we cloud. What, which cloud? Cloud nine <laugh> specifically, I actually pay for, I have three different cloud services. A you could use Google. Google has a free service that you, they give you x amount of megabytes. I think it's what, 50 megabytes or 25 megabytes for free.
Speaker 2 00:31:38 And you, whatever you want on there for free. As long as you have a Gmail account. And then if you get over a certain amount, then you pay. And it's not very much, it's like $5 a month and you get X amount, you know, it increases exponentially. You can get up to terabytes of information that you can just store and it never goes away. Yeah. They have services in there that's redundant and they store it in several locations. So it's always a good idea. I have personally had many times in my life where I have lost valuable digital things on my computer because I was like, what's on my computer? Right. And your hard drive crashes. Yeah. Or something. Computers can fail. Yeah. I even made backup copies of photographs. I had, you know, years worth of photography on compact disc on that I burned to compact disc and I said, this is it.
Speaker 2 00:32:32 This is the pinnacle of safety and, and keeping my, uh, you know, important photography safe. And I've had them where my computer crashed, I lost everything on my computer. I went to my backup discs and the discs were corrupt. Oh no. And I've, I mean, I had it happen a kind of couple different occasions. Right. It's terrible. So now I'm 100% cloud storage. Everything gets backed up onto my cloud every single day. Or I put it on there and it's almost instantaneous. Yeah. It sounds really confusing, but it's not. It's just a place for storage. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good tip. Here's another good tip, Corey. This doesn't cost you anything. Make sure that you are not leaving opportunistic items outside unsecured. Like, you made a really good point earlier when we were talking. If you own a ladder, um, an extension ladder or a step ladder, and that ladder is just leaning up against the outside of the house in the backyard and someone can use the ladder to access upper floor windows to get into your house, you're thinking maybe I left the upstairs window open for ventilation because it gets hot in the summertime and you've got a ladder leaning up against the side of the house because you've been touching up some paint on the exterior trim.
Speaker 2 00:33:52 I mean, you gotta keep things like that locked up. If you've got a shovel or a rake or a sludge hammer or something like that and it's just sitting out, somebody could use that to access the home. It's a good idea to keep that sort of stuff. Opportunistic type items locked up in the shed where it belongs. Yeah. I mean, the same thing goes for your expensive, large items that you would keep maybe potentially outside like bicycles or power tools. Oh yeah. You know, my kids come home, they drop their bikes <laugh> in plain sight, and I'm constantly after 'em go get your bike and put it either in the garage or in the shed. Yeah. Because when I was a kid, I had my bike stolen right out from under us. Oh no. It was right. Literally, I had it out in the front yard, next to the front door and somebody walked by stole it.
Speaker 2 00:34:41 You recover it. Never, oh, well we had scarred me for life. My older brother had his B M X was, it was the, it was his pride and joy man. Oh man. He loved that. He had Oakley grips. Oh man. Man. And he had, uh, tough rims, you know, it was really awesome. Somebody stole it, but guess what? They didn't live too far away and we found it <laugh> and we recovered it. Nice. Yeah, that doesn't always happen. We'll stay off the details on how that happened, but we got it back <laugh>. Yeah. That was a, you're right, it happens. It happens just like that. You gotta keep your stuff put away. Um, because like you said, it's a crime of opportunity. Right. And the easier you make it, the faster it will be gone. Absolutely. Um, here's another one. Use smart technology. Maybe consider getting smart locks.
Speaker 2 00:35:32 They make these door keypads now that instead of a key, it's just a key pad and they're connected to your wifi and you, like, if you have somebody coming over to feed your cat or your dog, you can give them a one-time use passcode. Yeah. Yeah. They punch the passcode in, they do their business. You get a notification on your phone that says so-and-so has come over and then you get a notification when they leave and they lock the door. Yeah. Or if they open the door and close it and forget to lock it, you can lock it from your phone. Wow. It's pretty amazing. And they, they're really making these things smart. I have a ring cam personally that I have out in front of my house, and that is literally the best thing money can buy. It's a video that allows you to see someone standing on your front porch and, and it, and you can actually view it from your phone no matter where you are.
Speaker 2 00:36:28 No matter where I am, I can talk to them no matter where I am. I can be at work. I can see if a package arrives, what time it arrives. It's amazing. You can see if your daughter's boyfriend comes over Absolutely. To visit, hanging out on the front porch. Absolutely. You can tell him to cut his hair. <laugh>. Hey, you kid. Slacker, <laugh>. Who are you? <laugh>. Yeah. The, the smart technology definitely deters people. If they look up at your house and they see a ring cam in plain sight, they're probably gonna be less apt to just walk up and start taking packages. Yeah. Slacker, slacker, <laugh>. Your dad was a slacker. <laugh>. Hey, this is a really good one. This was, this is number 10. Number 10 on the list. I really like this one. You can install motion activated lights around the perimeter of your home. This is really awesome.
Speaker 2 00:37:23 Um, obviously it's not new technology. Um, people aren't gonna say, oh, they're awake and they just turned on the lights. It doesn't matter if the guy's sneaking around outside your home and a light comes on, it draw his attention, a really good possibility, he's gonna go another direction. That's, that's correct. He's not gonna stand underneath that light and keep Jimmy in the lock, you know, on your garage door or whatever. Uh, motion censored lights is a really good way to go. People will see that you have motion sensors on your lights before they decide that your house is their target. Yeah. So. Well, and honestly, another good thing to do is on top of motion activated lights is just lighting in general, having nice, a nice well lit landscape at night. It a, it looks awesome. It adds property value, but it also deters people from creeping onto your property.
Speaker 2 00:38:18 You know, if you have dark areas, unlit areas with big shrubs and big trees at nighttime, somebody's gonna see that as an opportunity to sneak right up to a house with no, you know, completely unchecked. Right. So I really like that. I installed lighting on my house and I absolutely love it the way it looks. Everybody compliments it all the time. I think it has added property value, but for the most part, if you walk up to my house, somebody's seeing you. Yeah. Smart. Here's another really good idea as far as talking about lighting, but on the inside of the house, you can have lights inside the house if you're gonna be gone for an extended period of time, you can have lights inside the house that are on timers, lights that will automatically come on around the time that it gets dark and go off whenever they go off.
Speaker 2 00:39:08 Uh, and you can have one go off when another one comes on and sort of have, uh, you know, it, the appearance of being home inside. Yeah. If somebody sees lights coming and going, um, when they think you're not home, it's going to make them second guess whether or not it's an empty house. So if you, you know, I've talked about on the show many times is the smart home. I have a smart home. I love it. I have Apple Home kit with all of these lights that I've installed, Lutron, casita switches. I actually, you can have settings on there that will create an effect that you can say, I will be gone on vacation or whatever, and you tell it the times and it will randomly, it won't be on a timer. So somebody say, staking your house out. Not that that happens very much <laugh>, but if say someone were staking your house out and you have a light turn on at 8:00 PM every night, they're gonna know it.
Speaker 2 00:40:04 They're gonna say clearly they're gone. That light's just on off the same time every day. So you, this actually creates a randomized situation where it'll turn lights on at different dimness, turn them off at different times. So it gives the appearance as if someone could potentially be there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's kind of cool. Yeah, that is very cool actually. Um, outside of the house, one of the very simple things that you can do is build a fence. I mean, it's, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it's simple. Well, if you don't have a fence in it's obvious, build a fence. It's, it's an obvious thing. It's quite a project, but it's, it's an obviously smart idea to protect your property from wanderers. Absolutely. Right. And if you have a gate, like let's say you have a gate on a piece of the, your property that's not used very often, put a lock on it.
Speaker 2 00:40:54 Yeah. A low traffic gate is, there's no reason. And you know, there's no reason you can make it so it's locked. Yep. That's a good idea. Um, but overall, keep your property well maintained. It'll be a less likely targeted by vandals if they know that you're constantly maintaining it, mowing it, cleaning broken windows, doors, just making sure that your house is well kept. People are less likely to vandalize or burglar you. Yeah. Here's another tip, uh, as we're getting towards the end of this list. Here's another tip. In the unlikely no, in the unfortunate event that you do have an emergency situation at your home, it is a good idea to have well lit house numbers that are easy to see and, and bold. Big and bold right on the front of the house where everyone can see them to help. Um, um, first responders, responders, responders find your house easily and make sure that they're getting in there as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 00:41:58 Yeah. They may, they may be using Google Maps, I don't know. But if they're pulling up down your street and you're having an emergency inside your home and they can't find it because your address numbers are either a gone or super dark mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, it just makes no sense. Yep. I agree. Get some lights on those things. Uh, Tony, let's real quick, and I know this isn't necessarily home security, let's talk about just home safety in general. Okay. There's some, there's some things that you could do to make sure that your house is safe and secure. Number one's easy enough. Install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and keep the batteries in them changed <laugh>. We'll throw out reminders once a year if you have to add it to your Outlook calendar, whatever you gotta do, check the batteries and get 'em replaced regularly. Uh, another thing you can do is to create an emergency plan.
Speaker 2 00:42:51 We talked about this earlier. Create a plan, go over it with your family. That includes, you know, all of the things that can happen around you. Whether it's a fire weather, you know, we don't have much weather here, but, you know, potential floods, any sort of emergency. Create the plan, know that they know what to do in case and emergency. And when it happens, there won't be any surprises. Yeah. We say we don't have too much of that going on, but, but we know that an earthquake in our area, in the Pacific Northwest is as likely here as anywhere else that gets trues them all the time. Our, our, uh, earthquake here in this Pacific Northwest is due anytime and we need to be ready for it, be prepared. And the way to be prepared along with having an emergency plan and making sure that everyone that lives in your home has that plan, is make sure that you have emergency supplies on hand.
Speaker 2 00:43:45 Keep a supply that feeds and, and, um, and waters <laugh> everyone in the home for a a period of time. Maybe that's a week or maybe that's two weeks, but you need to have food and water in essentials first aid kit. Um, all of the things that you'll need to keep everybody safe and healthy, um, for a period of time. And it's a good idea to have that in the home and also in a sort of to go preparation. Yeah. A go bag. Simple. September is, uh, emergency preparedness month. And I know we've done that show several times in September, and we'll be doing that again this M September for sure. It's a good topic. But if you're not ready at all, if you're not prepared at all, then you're gonna be wishing that you were in the event at an emergency. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, hopefully you never need it, but it's there if you do part of that emergency plan, just, just to go one step further is, is making sure that you have an egress from the house in the case of a fire or of a, an earthquake or whatever it is that happens to come our way.
Speaker 2 00:44:52 If there's, you have children who live in bedrooms on the second floor, they need to have an an egress plan. How are they gonna get out of the house and where are they gonna meet once they get out of the house? Right. And make sure that everybody knows the plan, getting out safely and leaving the stuffed animal behind because it doesn't matter. Uh, make sure everybody understands how that's gonna, and then practice it. Knowing it is one thing. Sharing it is one thing. Practicing it is another thing altogether. A hundred percent. Uh, another thing, good thing to do is encourage your family to practice, you know, home safety. You know, avoid dangerous behaviors like leaving appliances unattended, like, you know, using knives or sharp objects improperly under using cords and wires in unsafe positions. Understanding what it smells like when the gas stove is on and not lit.
Speaker 2 00:45:44 Right. You know, that's, that's a very important thing that, that is a, a smell that, uh, is unique, but not everyone knows how to recognize that as, you know, raw propane. Right. And here's one of the things too that I'll say, I have kids. You have kids, a lot of people don't. So if you have, you know, a lot of the things that you have done in your house, like, you know, installed outlet covers or cabinet locks or, you know, baby gates on stairs and things like that. But if you have someone over to your house that doesn't have kids, or you go to someone's house that doesn't have kids, one of the things that I learned with having young kids early on is when you're cooking and you have say, a big pot of spaghetti sauce or something cooking on the stove, and you don't pay much mind to the handles because you're an adult.
Speaker 2 00:46:39 But kids, when they reach up, they grab anything. Yeah. And I learned that earlier on, I think doing research for the show, as a matter of fact, is that kids can reach up and grab the, handle, the handles on hot items on the stove. Anyway, what I'm, what I'm trying to say is there are a lot of things like that, that sometimes you need to be aware of. If you have people over or you're going to someone's house where they may not have kids and they don't fully understand. Um, just explaining those things to your kids and everyone around you. Yeah. So just to be safe. Yeah. That's smart. I, I cannot imagine, and I don't want to imagine, you know, an eight year old grabbing hold of a handle of a pot full of boiling water and have that come down on top of 'em.
Speaker 2 00:47:25 That would be an absolute disaster. It happens. It's, it's terrible. You know, another thing too that I've always heard about, you know, growing up as a kid was mixing chemicals. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mixing bleach with ammonia or things like that you just don't do. It's deadly. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> did, are they teaching that stuff now in school still? I believe that I learned that in school, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I need to sit down with my kids and talk to them about mixing chemicals. Yeah. I, I don't know that. Um, but it's a good idea to, and when you say chemicals, I think what you're really saying is don't mix one kind of cleaner, uh, with another kind of cleaner or, you know, if something's in a bottle with a label, that bottle and that label are not meant to be mixed with anything else. That's exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 00:48:14 Or used in conjunction with anything else. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. Mixing certain things like bleach and, and ammonia. Yeah. Can create a deadly gas and literally kill you. Yikes. So, uh, anyway, yeah, these are really good things. Communication in the home, uh, is a general safety must communicate with the kids in a way that they understand that these are things that you don't do. Don't put your hand on the stove, don't grab a handle that's on the stove. Don't mix Windex and goof off. You know, you just don't do those things. Right. Right. And don't put your head in the toilet. It's, uh, you know, it's a dangerous, dangerous place to be head in the toilet. Don't jump off the second story roof unless it's into a pool. <laugh>. Not even at that point. That's right. Anyway, well, hopefully you got some interesting things. Hopefully you were able to learn some stuff. Uh, if you like this show, make sure you hit that subscribe button down on whatever you're listening to. If you haven't already, go check out our Facebook and Instagram pages. We're at WW Home Show, got tons of videos up on YouTube. We just hit a thousand subscribers. We've got lots and lots of content on there, so go check that out. Absolutely. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll see you next time.
