Yesterday, my house was broken into. The thieves broke my glass door in the basement and stole my piggy bank. This left a lot of broken glass littering my basement and whereever it happened to be tracked through the house by people walking through it.

To clean the glass up, I used a combination of a plastic cup, a dust bin, a piece of wood (that used to wedge the sliding glass door shut but does not prevent people from coming through the door) and a bunch of paper bags. I double bagged the paper bags and filled them about a quarter to a third of the way before moving onto the next one. I also used a broom a few times, but for the most part it was easier scooping with the cup and the dust bin.

After almost hitting my head on the remaining glass in the door, I decided to get the rest of it out of the frame, which left a bit more to clean up. At least I didn’t have to worry about where I stood anymore.

Once I got the majority of the glass picked up, I got out the shop-vac. My boss let me borrow the shop-vac from work, and it made picking up much easier. It worked out quite well for getting things out of the corners and for the little bits strewn about everywhere. I still need to go outside and get the piles that are outside the door, but at least the vast majority of what was inside is picked up. We will be able to get in there and safely measure the door frame now to determine what we have available for a door replacement.

What do you do when your house gets broken into? What steps should you take? How do you make sure that it does not happen again?

My house got broken into this afternoon. They stole my piggy bank. Eight and a half months into home ownership, and I have to replace a door. The worst part is that they covered my Christmas tree in glass; since the door was made of safety glass, it shattered and left a fine coat of sharpness over a vast majority of my basement. We had the Christmas tree right in front of the door to acclimate it and planned on bringing it upstairs tonight to decorate it. Now, it would be too dangerous. I will probably put it out in front of the house for a couple weeks.

My wife and I got home at about the same time tonight. We immiediately noticed the change on the kitchen floor and part of my fire engine piggy bank just inside the door. We assumed that the cat had been having a whole lot of fun. After she had been fed and went downstairs, though, we heard her crunching through something. It turned out to be all of the glass from our sliding glass door. We took a quick look around and called the police.
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My wife and I acquired a treadmill this weekend from her grandparents. It is an old treadmill, but it does not have a huge footprint and it seems to be in good working order. It will need to be cleaned and serviced before we begin using it since it has been sitting in a bedroom unused for a few years, but it will be nice to have an option of somewhere we can get a lot of movement without leaving the house. Maine winters can get cold, and it should be a good way to warm up a little.

I do not think that it will work for actually running on, however. I think that it will have to be limited to brisk walking. That’s all right though.

The absolute worst case scenario is that it breaks and we are unable to fix it, in which case I can just pick it up and carry it back and forth around the basement. It is heavy enough to give a great workout that way. Bringing it down from an upstairs bedroom on a split staircase and then bringing it to my basement sure drove that home.

For now, though, it is the best time of year to get outside to go for a walk or a run.

Yesterday I was down in my basement, where I moved some blankets in front of the door in preparation for throwing them out. A little while later, I turned around to see my cat watching me, and a mouse watching the cat. I did not want the mouse to get scared and run and hide where we could not get it in the basement, so I herded it towards the cat. Freja did not see the mouse until it was about 2 inches from her head. When she did see the mouse, she chased it into the blanket and then jumped on the edges so that the mouse could not get out. My cat is very helpful like that.
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One thing that amazes me is how much more space there is to create a mess now that I have a house.

Our basement is definately a mess; when we moved in, all the boxes just got dumped down there haphazardly by myself and my uncles. The biggest problem was keeping them from blocking all the doors. Our haphazard way of unpacking hasn’t helped clean that up any. Add to that the lack of actual unpacking going on with our wedding plans in full swing and it is not a pretty picture.
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