Locksmith

The locks on the doors to English homes drive me absolutely crazy. You'd never realize how much you'd miss having a simple, flip of the wrist deadbolt on your door until you don't have one any more.

English houses only have doors that will lock and unlock from the inside with a key. This means you can't ever open your front door from the inside without one.

If someone comes to the door, and you go to open it forgetting its locked you have to fumble around with your guest waiting outside while you search for where you put your keys down. This sometimes leads to a lot of awkward waiting for the said guest as you shout through the door apologising while they wait outside in the cold because you can't seem to find them. If you're trying to leave the house and you're carrying a lot of things, you need to put everything down, find keys, unlock door, pick up your things, walk out the door, put your things down again, lock the door, and then go on your merry way.

One of my immediate realizations after a week living in my house was the possibility of the need for keys on the inside being a fire hazard. When I pointed this out though, I was reminded that I can easily climb through the windows. Oh, I forgot, my windows don't have screens. I guess I'll have to retrain my brain to remember that the window is the fastest way out of my house.

I haven't seen a single home in Oxford that doesn't have a front door that looks like this from the inside...