“No,” she said, pointing at the new door. “The fact that a forty-five-minute fix can cut your electric bill by thirty percent. And no scorpions in the living room.”

They did not mention that the aluminum frame, baked in 115-degree heat for fifteen years, had essentially welded itself to the concrete threshold. They did not mention that the cheap Phillips-head screws had turned into soft, rusty nubs. And they definitely did not mention that the moment you break the original seal, a dozen tiny Arizona bark scorpions might be living in the hollow channel of the frame.

Or a nightmare, depending on how you felt about your escalating electric bill.

The “someone” turned out to be a company called Sonoran Desert Glass & Screen . The owner, a sun-leathered woman named Maggie, showed up at 3 p.m.—the hottest part of the day—in a long-sleeved shirt and a wide hat. She didn’t even flinch when she touched the aluminum door.

Leo was a DIY kind of guy. He’d rebuilt a Mustang engine in this same garage. How hard could replacing a door be? He watched four YouTube videos, each one hosted by a cheerful guy in a flannel shirt standing in what was clearly a mild Ohio climate. “Just pop out the old glass, slide in the new panel,” they said.