Guest Blogger: Aaron 11/15

Hey Friends! I'd like to introduce you to my best guy-friend, Aaron. Aaron and Daniel met through business. Little did they know that they'd soon be neighbors and building a lifelong friendship. Aaron and his wife Julie are building a house right across the "woods" from where we're building our new house! Aaron is a hard working, sweet-hearted person who cares for others more than himself. He's a great listener and friend. I'm so thankful he's in Daniel's life and mine. Welcome, Aaron!


Aaron (left) and Daniel at the Pumpkin Patch this fall.

Thank you Leslie. Julie and I feel the same way about you guys and I appreciate the kind words and the opportunity to share something on your blog. 

Hello Everyone. I have not blogged in a long time and when Leslie asked if I would be a guest blogger on her site I was happy to do it. Although eager to share something that could be of interest to her blog followers, I have racked my brain the last few days for words to put on paper (well on the computer screen). There are many things I could have chosen but I figured I would go with something I know pretty well and hope that it can help with making hard choices for the future of the security of your family. I'm sure the last sentence got your attention. Well I hope it did. I'm not going to post my resume here but if you want to ask me off line why I am qualified to speak on this subject then I will be happy to share. I will be talking about what you can do to beef up the security of your home and protection of your family. These are not by any means the only things you can do to enhance your home's security but I have chosen several things that you can do to help in this endeavor. Let me take a moment to explain what I consider home security is and the thought process of personal security.

Think of home security like layers of an onion. The outer perimeter is somewhat hardened and scaly and has many layers before you get to the actual edible onion layers. This is your outer perimeter not very imaginative huh.

 Peal off the outer layer and next you have the edible part of the onion. Its the most intense in smell and juice. When you cut into it the onion odor hurts your eyes. This is the inside of your home. Its sensitive to disruption from others and when broken into, it leaves a sense of vulnerability and violation. Next is the center of the onion which is the seed that it grew from. The seed that turned it into an onion. This is you and your family and it is what you're trying to protect and grow the protection around. Have you ever heard of the phrase "Strive to make yourself a hard target and not a soft target". This is what we are trying to do here, make you and your home a hard target. If you've never heard of that then take it literally like a hard target (harder to get to, like with more layers on an onion) and a soft target is easy to prey on (soft target would be like a marshmallow which has no layers at all, its the same make up throughout). I hope I was able to explain that with some clarity. My wife tells me I ramble a lot and go over the same stuff so hopefully it makes sense. So enough of that let's get to the first layer. 

There are 3 things you can do to beef up the perimeter security of your home. Well actually there are tons of things and security upgrades and equipment you can purchase for your home. I will just be covering 3 of those. In my opinion the first thing and by far the cheapest way to make your home and family a hard target is to have a security sign somewhere in your yard usually near the driveway or side walk. Brinks, Hacket, ADT, whomever. Also, security company stickers help if you put those on your main entrance doors. A lot of people don't like those but I have one on two windows where people can see them when they walk up. Even if you may not have a security system if the person considering breaking into your home sees a security sign they will more likely not choose your home. I'm not saying that they may not see it and break in anyway but then you have to have other means of security in place.

The second hard target action would be to add motion sensor lights that you can install near your driveway, near the front door, near the backdoor, and the sidewalk. Yes, you may have animals and they may set off but this may also deter the would-be-thief who was walking up your driveway to break in or just help your neighbor spot them and identify them. You can buy a decent motion sensor light from Lowe's for under $30.  

Motion Sensor Lights at Lowe's

The third way and most expensive you can do to make yourself a hard target is to have a security system installed. It costs more to install a security system in an existing home but cheaper when you are building a home.  It is relatively cheap to run the wiring when building.  Before they close up the walls and it can already be in place if you ever decide down the road that you want a security system.  If you ever sell the house it's just one more bonus for the buyers if they are looking for a house with a security system. You don't have to install the wall panels or anything, just the wiring.  The wiring will be in place when you are ready to install the walls mounts.

For my house and my family's security I love the fact that when an door leading to the outside is opened, my security alarm chimes and lets me know when and what door has been opened. Yes, when we have many guest and its' chiming all the time it get really annoying so I turn down the chime for those occasions.  You can also install security cameras on the home if you're having issues with vandals or thieves stealing things from outside or breaking into out-buildings.  For those situations a good security camera would be the way to go with a endless recording device located inside the home so you can use this as evidence of the break in. Most security cameras will go undetected when put in the right areas and when detected it's too late for the person caught to do anything about it. As far as my home and the doors leading to the outside I love just knowing when exacly a door has been opended.

Those, my friends of our mutual friend, are some of the ways you can make your home and family a bit safer while at home or away from your home. I've heard the question, "Why go through all that because if someone wants to break in to your home, they are going to anyway?" Well that is partly true, but I always come back with, "Why not do these small things and deter the ones that really don't want a confrontation with the home owners or the law." The marjority of break ins are executed while the home owner is away but there are those times when a person comes into the home with intent of harm but that is another subject that we can cover at a later date if you guys will have me back and Leslie would like to have me back to her blog.

I hope this helps you start thinking of your homes security and just more alert if anything. My intent is not to make anyone paronoid but prepared and set yourself up to be a hard target and not a soft target.

Thanks for having me and I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.

Cheers.