Vault or no vault?

[rayinpenn]

It must be a metropolitan NY thing... Every night when it gets dark we close every curtain. And there are curtains and "shears" on every window. The bogeyman can't see in and I can't see out.
Until around midnight the LED landscaping and walkway lights keep Bali High Well illuminated. I check the doors and locks and I turn on the alarm. After walking the pooch (she's a big 70lbs.) in the morning i reverse the process and I open up our yurt. I open every curtain the Mrs would leave the shears (see thru light colored curtains) drawn.

One night about 4am the dog is barking and making quite the fuss. I can't see out. I'm not the scared type I worked as a night watchman. I head downstairs and plop myself into my easy chair. That's when I hear it- an ungodly screaming - even though I know it is a fox (I'm still thinking walking dead) no point in going out there anyway? Right? right?

If i go to bed early and we happen to have the back slider open she closes it...I giggle.

Anyway do you vault up at night?


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[Meadbh]

My upstairs condo overlooks a rural landscape. I don't need, or have, any drapes. In fact I usually have the blinds rolled up so I can wake with the dawn.

Yes, I lock the door. But the windows are open.

 

[W2R]

It must be a metropolitan NY thing... Every night when it gets dark we close every curtain. And there are curtains and "shears" on every window. The bogeyman can't see in and I can't see out.
Until around midnight the LED? landscaping and walkway lights keep Bali High Well illuminated. I check the doors and locks and I turn on the alarm. After walking the pooch (she's a big 70lbs.) in the morning i reverse the process and I open up our yurt. I open every curtain the Mrs would leave the shears (see thru light colored curtains) drawn.

One night about 4am the dog is barking and making quite the fuss. I can't see out. I'm not the scared type I worked as a night watchman. I head downstairs and plop myself into my easy chair. That's when I hear it- an ungodly screaming - even though I know it is a fox (I'm still thinking walking dead) no point in going out there anyway? Right? right?

If i go to bed early and we happen to have the back slider open she closes it...I giggle.

Anyway do you vault up at night?

Well of course!! Good heavens, I live in New Orleans, which is a small town these days but not exactly Mayberry RFD when it comes to crime. What you are describing is just plain common sense for living in a big city AFAIK.

I close the blinds at dusk, not dark. I keep all doors and windows locked at all times other than when airing out the house. I don't go out at night at all, unless F is with me. Without going into details, I can say that he does whatever is necessary to ensure our safety.

I lock my car whenever I am not in it, even though I now keep it inside my detached garage, which I also keep securely locked.

BTW I love having my very own garage.

 

[eytonxav]

We keep the door locked at all times, shades down/wooden shutters closed at night, but no outside lights unless expecting company. We do have an alarm system, but don't use it while we are home. Our house is in a gated neighborhood, so that helps a little with the sense of security.

 

[Philliefan33]

We always lock the doors and first-floor windows when we go to bed. When DH is traveling and I'm home alone, I keep the doors locked when I'm inside but leave the windows open until I go to bed.

We have an alarm system but only set it when we are leaving for multiple days-- never when we are just gone for the day or going to bed.

 

[MRG]

We lock up and have an active alarm system. Despite(or because) of living "out" our last two homes were attempted to or broken into. Changes something in you when you meet someone in your home. Luckily no firearms were discharged.

Our last home had zero blinds and didn't need them unless you wanted to protect the wildlife's eyes.

 

[RobbieB]

I open most of the windows in the house and turn on the attic fan every night in the summertime.

 

[ABQ2015]

I always keep my front door locked and check it before I go to bed. I'm female and live alone in a medium sized southwestern city in a nice older, downtown neighborhood surrounded by less desirable neighborhoods. This will sound horrible to you but I have wrought iron bars on my windows and doors. But the home is Spanish style with red clay tile roof and the bars are rather ornamental. The purpose of the bars are more for property protection than personal protection in my city but they serve double duty. This also allows me to open a couple of windows for the evaporative coolers to work.

There are large honeycomb shades on my windows that are usually kept down but this is to keep the house insulated as my older home has single pane windows. We have had a heat wave since early June and it has been mid 90's up to 100 degrees almost every day. That's why I'm retiring to the PNW.

 

[Gumby]

What are these "curtains" of which you speak? If the neighbors haven't seen it before, they won't know what it is. And if they have, it's certainly no big surprise.

 

[braumeister]

I just let the security staff worry about it.

 

[Nodak]

Not needed in a town of 1500 people. The fact that about 75% of homes have guns in them helps too.

 

[eytonxav]

What are these "curtains" of which you speak? If the neighbors haven't seen it before, they won't know what it is. And if they have, it's certainly no big surprise.

Are you referring to hand size?

 

[MichaelB]

One of the things I've come to appreciate about South Florida is the home design. Large windows everywhere, and ceiling to floor sliding glass doors all around the house. No curtains, but some of the doors and windows have plantation shutters. None overlooking the patio, however, and the sight is beautiful day and night. That's one of the reasons DE likes it so much there.

 

[Lcountz]

Very rural area here....I leave the rear facing windows undraped for three months of the year...faces woods and a pond and a hundred mile view of the Forest...

I DO lock and keep all doors locked, except the back patio door is wide open all day to catch the breeze in summer....Windows open all night....

Once in a while I go up to get the mail at the road after dark, and my neighbor, who is like me,(no curtains, many windows) I can see into thier kitchen, and see him making a sandwich or using the sink....not very exciting!!!!!

I never keep my front facing garage doors open. I don't like that people can look in from the road and see my stuff.

I DO lock all the doors at night!.....

So far, the most un-nerving thing has been hearing coyotes screaming in the woods down near the pond....that is one chilling sound at night. And skunks that do their thing right near the bedroom window. Now THAT"s annoying!!!

Like someone else mentioned, everyone in my state has guns. In Ruralia where I live, multiple guns. So you are taking a chance on breaking in and getting your head blown off.
Not saying it doesn't happen, but you really are taking a chance any more.

 

[calmloki]

High securitah here. Got the ADT signs, got the fake cameras on the battlements and have the dusk to dawn lights and the 5'+ block wall with locked gate down south. At night we have strategic windows and doors flung open in hopes of cool air.

Up north in the house we did for us we have no security signs, no (fake) cameras, no lit lights, no perimeter wall - at night I lock the front door but leave the other doors unlocked and many of the windows open. Our bedroom door onto the deck stays open for the breeze and cruising cat.

 

[MBAustin]

We have 3 floor to ceiling (but relatively narrow) windows at the front of the house. No shades or curtains - folks can see through to the TV in the family room but can't really see much of us or what we are doing. Other living area rooms have partial shades. Bedrooms have full shades.

I'm big on exterior lighting - we have two lights at the front porch and motion detector lights both on the front porch and at the driveway.

 

[Dash man]

We have a security system with cameras covering the doors and motion detectors for the ground floor. We lock doors and downstairs windows at night. Some windows are covered and some aren't. Pretty safe area and good neighbors. Biggest nuisance are birds nesting inside our shutters.


Enjoying life!

 

[Bestwifeever]

I close the downstairs blinds or shades (we are a curtain-free house) late at night and open them in the morning, just part of the daily routine of putting the house to bed and waking it up in the morning. Our village suburb is fun to drive or walk around at night because most people leave their windows uncovered and lights on, and it just looks so pretty in their houses. The more expensive the home, the more likely it is that we can see in from the street. Crime here is mostly identity theft or the most interesting vandalism report of pink chalk drawing on a school sidewalk by unknown suspects, so I guess we don't worry much about bad guys.

 

[rodi]

I close the front blinds at night when we turn the lights on inside. But leave the ones that face the back open except to provide shade/cool. No-one can see in the back windows since we're on a hill and have a fence. Even the tenants can't see in our back windows. Side windows face greenery and a fence - so side neighbors can't see in, either.

Windows upstairs are opened/closed as needed for ventilation. Windows downstairs are locked before we go to bed.

Doors are locked when we're not home or when we're asleep.

Garage is closed even when we're home unless we're working in the garage. (This appears to be unusual in our neighborhood - but there have been a lot of garage break-ins in our 'hood lately.)

 

[Bestwifeever]

Also, we always keep our front porch light on until we go to bed.

 

[Sunset]

Dusk to dawn lights on , and motion lights for our backyard which is fenced and gates locked all the time (so nobody should ever be there).

I close the blinds at dusk so folks don't see us walking around.

The doors always remain locked, and garage door closed unless we are in the front yard or garage.

We don't have a dog to warn us if someone is prowling around, which has happened before, so I'm thinking of getting an exterior motion device just so I know somebody is at the front door, would help for deliveries too.

I made a short stick from a broom handle to put in the patio door, so we can at times (but not night) leave it open about 6 inches, yet nobody could further open the door to enter. Helps with the cross breeze to the upper windows we sometimes open.

 

[Ronstar]

No need to lower the blinds- our windows can't be seen from another house or from the road. Sometimes I lock the gate, most times I don't. My workshop exterior lights are always on. Doors are locked and DW activates the alarm. We leave no exterior or interior lights on. Exterior cameras are in night vision mode



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[RE2Boys]

Only thing we do is make sure all doors are locked. Front windows have shears, they don't move. All other windows have high sills, about 4 ft up, so we never bother with curtains and such. Back has a 10ft tall hedge giving pretty good privacy.

 

[brewer12345]

We lock up at night and curtains are our friends. A big part of the curtain thing is that the western exposure on the front of the house really heats things up in the afternoon. We leave the porch light on at night, have an ADT sign out front, and if the right dog barks (the other is an idiot barker) I would investigate. We live in a safe suburb where the police have nothing to do.

 

[Gumby]

Are you referring to hand size?

Of course.

I'm reminded of an incident long ago, when I was a sprightly young fellow. I met a girl and things went very well. As we were getting to know one another a little better, she giggled and asked

"Who do you think you're going to please with that little thing?"

I responded forthrightly,

"Me."