My world is truly transforming. I am along for the ride as it happens both internally and externally. Not only am I turning 50 this summer, with the last child moving out, and beginning that strange and exotic road called menopause....but we're getting new windows!!!
Symbolic, no? New windows are like new eyes on the world. Bright new eyes that twinkle in the sunlight. We are getting 13 new, white, smooth vinyl windows that open and close with a touch, have built-in screens, and block out the UV rays and the noise of our busy street. Windows that don't rattle in the wind, amplify outside noise, sweat in cold weather and require paper towels to block the gaps where the seal has broken. We're getting 21st CENTURY WINDOWS!
But...as with anything in this world, they don't come easy. Not only do they cost and arm and a leg (hello home loan!), they take months to order, schedule, and install (we started this process in January!), and they come with certain "characters" that you have to put up with for extended periods of time.
The first guy we met was the salesman who came over to our house not once, not twice, but three times to sit at our table for HOURS, literally hours, with his lap top, running up quotes and telling us stories. And telling us all KINDS of things about windows that we didn't need to know - different kinds of glass combinations, and bubbles and shades of this and that, and how glass and vinyl work together, and seals, and all kinds of professional lingo that we did not understand - but not telling us crucial information like whether they would be taking them down from the inside of the house or the outside, or whether they had screens attached, or what to do with the storm windows we had, how long the whole process would take, etc etc. Those three nights he was here were some of the most boring and frustrating of my life. I'll never get them back.
Plus, the sample window he had to show us was tiny, heavy, and he made my husband carry it from the van up the stairs to the house because he was too tired. :(
Off to an auspicious start. Now we are in the middle of the installation. Yesterday was Day 1 and a guy exactly like the first guy came out all by himself to install our 13 windows. He walked like he had back pain and took an hour to unload his truck. He complained that his helper didn't show up, and he would "have to see" how many windows he could get done by himself that day. ARGH! We paid $8000.00 for him to come without his helper?!!! I was incensed. When he plugged in a big stereo in the back yard and started playing music I promptly (and politely don't worry) asked him to turn it off. I do not understand the whole music-at-construction-sites thing. I really hate it, I mean folks who are doing work on a house, or getting work done are already impacting the neighborhood in a huge, loud, and pretty annoying way. Trucks, saws, hammers, back up beeps - they are not nice to listen to. Why do they think they should add to the din and play music as well?!!! I wasn't allowed to play music at most of my jobs! You'd think they'd want to minimize the annoyance to the neighborhood, show some respect and NOT play music on top of everything else, but no. Of course not. Just crank up that country, (and the ads!), and go to town! Grrrr. He was nice about turning off the music though, so I felt a little better.
Finally, finally he took out a window. And by the end of the day he got four windows done. Not caulked, not sealed, but in. And they are BEAUTIFUL. I love them. They change the house. I can't wait for them all to be done!!!!! We've lived for ten bloody years on this insane street with 100 year-old windows. Some have been cracked since we moved in, and that one with the paper towels...well, that's embarrassing. But no more! When you turn 50 years old you can have new windows!!! Now I just need to work on the hot tub.
xoxoxo DR
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