Windows

While my grandmother was visiting in the beginning of August we placed an order for new windows for the whole house. Our old windows were single paned and horribly energy inefficient, but also had screens that didn't really fit well and didn't work well at keeping the bugs out. Since we don't have central air our windows are open most of the time in the spring and summer, and the bugs were becoming a major issue. Twice I was laying in bed in our second floor master bedroom reading and then I looked up and saw an enormous grasshopper on my ceiling. What in the hell was a grasshopper doing on my ceiling? Why did that happen more than once? So between the bug problem, the energy and heating savings, and the tax credit we decided that now was the best time, but it is really unpleasant to spend that much money all at once.

We expected it to take 4-6 weeks for the windows to be custom made and set up an install date. Yet while Ryan was gone I got a call that they were going to start the install in 3 days, this being less than 3 weeks after we placed the order. That was great but there was a lot of prep work that needed to be done and I was on my own to do it. The window air conditioning units need to be removed, all blinds and window treatments removed, and all furniture moved at least 3 feet away from the windows. Thankfully I had Jenn and Eric to help. We had already planned to go to the zoo and they volunteered to come help with the window units and such after that. It only took a few minutes but it was a great help. Thanks to them we were all ready for the install on Monday. The truly ridiculous part was that the weather had been lovely for weeks previous and during the week that we couldn't have the window units in happened to be the week we had a freak 90 degrees plus a day heat wave. Then after the install was done the weather went back to being beautiful.

The installers were fantastic. They worked around Than's schedule so we had no major disruption of his schedule. He got to nap at his normal time and spend the day in the playroom as usual. They worked on his bedroom in the mornings and the playroom while he napped. However we were basically house bound while this was going on so I wasn't able to take Than out to distract him.

The interior part of the install took two days but wrapping the aluminum around the exterior took the rest of the week. The new windows look great and it is so nice to be able to open them without having to put my whole body weight into it. Than also appreciates how easy it is, he couldn't open or close the old windows but now he can, so he has spent weeks opening and closing windows whenever he gets the chance.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much it cuts our heating costs, I'm willing to bet it will be significant.