"Beefing up the ol' home security, huh?"

(Extra points if you can name the movie quote from which I titled this blog post.)

When we built our house, we chose a brick exterior and wall framing a little thicker than standard. As a result, the house is very well insulated (our electricity bill in the summer with central air running almost constantly averaged just $150 a month for a 2,700 sq ft house). The downside: I can't hear anyone coming down our driveway, so I never know if we have a visitor until the doorbell rings. From a home security perspective, I find this unacceptable.

So I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new driveway sensor which uses an infrared beam to detect visitors. I suspect I'll get my share of false alarms (we have plenty of deer, turkey, etc. around here), but hopefully fiddling with the settings will reduce most of those to a manageable level.

In addition, I have purchased NightLocks for our two doors that are not yet fully secure. All of our doors have deadbolts, but these deadbolts are keyed (so they're susceptible to being bumped or picked). The NightLock is basically a metal blocker that is screwed into the floor, which blocks the door and prevents it from opening without a lot of force. It would probably take a couple of good kicks to get through it, and by that time any intruder into my home is going to be staring down the barrel of a shotgun. I think of the NightLock as kind of like a chain lock on steroids. Here's a link to it if anyone's interested: http://www.taylorbrothersdoorlock.com/

As I've mentioned, Hubby and I are in a bit of a money crunch. But these two products cost me about $200 (to cover the driveway and two doors). For me, the peace of mind is worth the price.