The grandfather clock in our entrance hall rings out the full, 16-note Westminster Chime on the hour, every hour, along with tones for the time. So does the clock on the mantle over the fireplace in our living room.

When we bought the house last December, neither of us liked the weak, two-note chime of the doorbell so I replaced it with one of the new, electronic chimes, set — of course — to a Westminster chime.

Big mistake. When someone came to the door we couldn’t tell if we have a visitor or one of the clocks was chiming out of sequence. If the visitor happened to arrive at the top of the hour, the doorbell chime was lost in the crescendo that echoed throughout the house.

So I dug out the instruction book and found I could change the doorbell chime to an alternate tune, something called “The Wellington Chime.”

Problem solved. Now, if I could just find a doorbell button that electrocutes salesmen…