.

Day two of the storm door project started at 9:00am as we laid out the pieces and parts of the handles we were told were included, but weren’t.

.

.

Things were a little confusing at first but after a long discussion over instructions, we thought we had it.

.

.

Holes were drilled. Hopefully where they were supposed to be.

.

.

Wood on the frame was cut and chiseled out because naturally the holes from our old door didn’t match the new.

.

.

Handle and locks in place, it was secured and ready to shut.

.

.

Only it didn’t.

Wouldn’t.

No matter how much we tinkered and tried.

So we had to take it all off and start again, trying to figure out where we went wrong.

.

.

See that piece? We came to hate that piece quite quickly. Virulently and utterly.

It’s part of the locking mechanism that drops down into the door. There’s only one way to put it in, one way to secure it… which we did. Repeatedly. But the stupid piece was backward, and for the life of us we couldn’t figure out why. We started questioning left and right, up and down but no matter what we did we couldn’t make it work.

The storm door can be hinged on either side. The handles can be installed on either side. So why wouldn’t it work?

We drove ourselves nuts for 2 solid hours fiddling with (and cursing) it.

My husband swore I’d bought the wrong handle and that they were designated for left and right hand opening. I knew they weren’t and swore we were just missing something simple.

Frustrated, he removed all the hardware, packed it up and drove it back to the store with receipts, instructions and pictures… determined to get satisfaction.

At 3:00pm he came back with an answer.

The one he had to ask two salesmen, a door rep and the assistant manager to get.

The one the instructions made absolutely no mention of.

.

.

You take the piece out and flip it over.

Seriously?

😳

It comes set up for a right hinged door and since we hinged on the left, it was indeed backward.

So why the #!*</+ don’t they tell you that!

Talk about aggravating.

.

.

At 3:30pm on day two?

.

.

After 11 total hours of “easy installation”?

.

.

We had a new fully functional storm door.

.

.

And I swear, if this one ever breaks?

We’ll just move.

It will be easier.

😊

.

P.S…. the handles we were originally told came with the door but didn’t? The ones we had to make a special trip back to the store to purchase? The silly things were supposed to come with the door after all but are packaged separately and kept in the store room. When a special order comes in the clerk is supposed to grab the coordinating handles and add it to the delivery. So we did end up get a refund for that.

👍

.