The paint was perfect. Three coats, cut in clean, not a drip on the baseboards. The homeowner — a guy who'd spent six weekends on this living room — stood back with his arms crossed, proud as he should be. I nodded. The work was solid.
Then I looked at the front door. Old deadbolt. No peephole. No camera. Glass panel right next to the handle — one rock and someone's inside.
I've been painting and renovating in the Bahamas since 1992. I've walked through hundreds of finished homes, and I'll tell you what I see almost every time: a homeowner who spent $3,000 on materials and six weekends of their life making a room beautiful, and zero dollars protecting the whole house.
Here's what nobody in the trade will tell you about finishing a renovation: the job isn't done when the paint dries. The job is done when the home is better than you found it — and that includes security.
When I finish a renovation for a client, I notice things most homeowners don't. The door that faces the dark side of the house. The window hidden by landscaping. The front entrance where packages sit visible from the street. I've been on job sites where tools walked off overnight. I've had clients call me back because someone kicked in a door three weeks after we finished a $40,000 interior.
A renovation raises the value of your home. It also raises the stakes.
What the uninformed DIYer does: Puts every dollar into what you can see — paint, trim, flooring. Walks past the front door a hundred times and never thinks about it as a security point. Figures "nothing's happened yet."
What the smart DIYer does: Treats security as the final phase of the project. Same as the last coat of poly on a floor — it's not extra, it's part of the job.
This is exactly why I tell every homeowner I work with to install a video doorbell before they call the renovation complete. Not after something happens. Before.
The Ring Video Wired Doorbell 2-Pack is what I point people toward. It's wired — no battery to charge every few weeks. HD camera with motion detection. Two-way talk so you can tell the delivery guy where to leave the package without opening the door. And it comes as a two-pack — front door and back door covered in one purchase. Around $80 for the pair.
I've seen contractors charge $200 to $400 to install a single doorbell camera. This is a one-hour DIY job. Two screws. Connect the wires. Download the app. Done.
Here's the thing about being a hands-on homeowner: you already know how to run wire, mount hardware, and follow instructions. You just spent weeks cutting, measuring, sanding, and painting. Installing a video doorbell is the easiest part of the whole project — and it might be the most important.
Three things I've learned about home security after 34 years in the trade:
1. Visible cameras prevent problems before they start. I've worked in neighborhoods where every third house had a camera and neighborhoods where nobody did. The difference in break-in rates isn't subtle. A doorbell camera with a visible LED ring says "pick another house" without saying a word.
2. The back door matters as much as the front. Most homeowners camera-up the front door and forget the back. Guess which door gets kicked in more often? The two-pack solves this — both entries covered on day one.
3. Wired beats battery every time. I've had clients show me their battery doorbell that died three days ago and they didn't notice. A wired doorbell pulls power from the existing doorbell wiring — it works as long as the house has power. If your house already has a doorbell, you already have the wiring.
I also keep an Echo Dot in the kitchen at every house I work on now. It connects to the Ring system — "Alexa, show me the front door" — and you can see who's there without reaching for your phone. Simple. The 5th Gen sounds better than the old ones too.
Here's what I know after 34 years: the homeowners who are truly good at this — the ones whose work looks professional years later, whose homes hold value, who never have to call me back for a repair — they think past the paint. They finish the job all the way.
You didn't spend six weekends on that living room to leave the front door as an invitation.
The Ring two-pack takes an hour to install. It costs less than the paint you bought for that accent wall. And it protects everything you just built.
Get the free guide — free.
I put 34 years of job-site experience into this. No opt-in walls, no courses to buy — just the guide.
👉 Get it here
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