Drats! Foiled Again!

We installed a sliding lock on our basement door many years ago. It's served us well to keep the boys from getting downstairs without permission. Our basement is old, unfinished, not much fun, and yet it is so attractive to little boys because Dad's tools are down there. For Brendan & Brett (and visiting kids), just the presence of the lock kept them out of trouble. For Bryce, of course, he just moves a chair over, opens the lock and makes his way downstairs.

The most bothersome thing he does down there is opening up the chest freezer and eating the ice. Yes, there's a lock on the freezer, yes, he can open it. One morning, we found that he had left the freezer open for who only knows how long. That was the end of "move chair to open lock."

"normal" location for a sliding lock on a door

It took a matter of minutes for Brad to move that lock to the top of the door. Brad, Brendan, and I can all reach it waaay up top; Brett requires the use of a small chair and Bryce? Well, if Bryce drags a bar stool over he can reach it too. So far, he's only tried it once and wasn't successful.

Here's Brad moving it to the top of the door. And yes, that's a Bryce-proof latch on the pantry. 

Bryce likes to help Brad around the house, so Bryce went and got his tools and help "screw" in the new latch location. Little did he know he was helping foil his own attempts at going free-range on the  basement!!!

There's Brendan to the left of this shot, going free-range on the pantry snacks! (again!)