Raising the Door on a Frugal Find

When it comes to being a tightwad, my Dad makes just about anybody else look like an amateur. If he wanted to make a living in retirement giving Frugal Living Seminars, he could make a mint. However, since he is Frugal, he has no need for this additional income.

The two-car detached garage at my parents’ house for many years had the strangest garage door. I can only assume that it was original to the home, which I believe was built in 1938. This wooden door was about four inches thick, and boy was it HEAVY. No garage-door opener in the history of those useful contraptions has ever been built that had enough horse-power to lift open that monster.

This wasn’t much of a problem, however, because my parents had a flock of two-legged garage-door openers. When we were kids, my parents would pull up to the garage in their 1973 Chevy Kingswood station wagon, one of us would hop out, and up the door would go.

I had my own special method of dealing with the behemoth. First, I would lift the door by the handle just enough to get my foot under it. Then I would put my two hands in the crack I was holding open with my foot. Next I would lift the door with my two hands enough to rest it on my thigh. From this point I would then be able to more-or-less toss the door up and open using my two arms and kicked-up leg. I was really good at this and could of course do it in less time than it takes to tell you about it. Everyone was used to opening that crazy door, and it really wasn’t such a big deal.

But of course, time marches on and before you know it all four of us were grown and out of the house. My parents still had that Kingswood, but now there were none of us at home to help get it in the garage. Even so it wasn’t much of an issue for my parents, other than the fact that they now had to get out of the car, open the garage, and then get back in the car and drive it into the garage.

But when a great tightwad opportunity comes knocking at Dad’s door, he’s ready to answer it. This opportunity presented itself about five years back when my sister decided she wanted to upgrade her own garage door. She was having her whole house painted, and so she thought it would be a good time to replace the door. The old one worked and looked fine, but she really wanted a roll-up door (with windows) that would look great with her freshly painted home (and take it from me, it does look great).

So after the new door was installed, Dad drove his big old Ford truck over to my sister’s house. He carefully tied that huge piece of square metal to the rack of his truck. Of course, he didn’t forget the old garage door opener either. He cautiously drove it home and then set about finally replacing the old monster door.

When he went to install the “new” door, however he found that it was too wide for his 1930’s era two-car garage. Not a problem for Dad. He simply cut the door to the width he needed. I don’t know if he used the old hardware from my sister’s garage or not, but I would be surprised if he didn’t. Anyway, in not too much time my Dad and brother installed his “new” easy-to-manage automatic garage door and garage door opener.

I often point out that patience is a hallmark of the Frugal lifestyle. Here is a perfect example. My Dad waited forty years before he found the best deal on an automatic garage door that he could possibly find. Until he found that deal, he would just make do with the door he had. I don’t think I would have the frugal-backbone myself to wait forty years for a good deal, but I can’t help but admire people who do.

Now I don’t really recommend installing your own garage door. This is probably a dangerous task unless you know what you’re doing. But it’s the idea behind this little anecdote that is so powerful. Just see what you can do and SAVE if you are willing to wait for things, even things that might be regarded as downright necessities by some. Dad could have very easily gone out and bought, and have installed, a brand new door. But as a true Tightwad, he would much rather re-use a perfectly good “old” door and opener that would have just ended up in a landfill trash heap, doing nobody any good. Stretch yourself a little, and you might be surprised at what you can do.