New Windows

   Did I mention this was an old house? Several of the windows where the old "louver" kind of windows, which happily lets in cold air and burglars with equal ease whether open or closed. They had to go. So, I started a hunt for windows. I had several options from brochures I had gotten at a recent home show, called up four of them. Three out of the four actually showed up to give me estimates. The fourth never showed up. It turns out the guy had a cold. Nice of him to call and let me know.

    Out of the three, one was outrageously more expensive, so that one was out. So it was down to two. Both sold similar products, a search on the web didn't rate one brand of windows any better than the other. The prices were comparable, so the decision came down to instinct. I really struggled on this one, because this was the biggest expense so far. I finally decided on Harward Remodeling to do the installation. I was swayed by the nice salesman, and the fact that he drove down all the way from Sacramento to give me an estimate. Call me silly.

    I called the nice salesman to tell him of my decision, and he came back again to take measurements and discuss the details of what I wanted. We discussed keeping the existing trim around the outside of the windows because it matched well with the rest of the house. Since I wasn't replacing all the windows in the house, I made it clear that I wanted to preserve the existing trim so that the new windows would fit in nicely with the old ones. He said they could easily do that.

    Well, three weeks went by, and then the happy day came. Two workmen showed up with my windows. One went to the backyard with his tools, while I talked to the other. As the sound of breaking wood and sawing began filling the neighborhood, I walked around the house showing the guy what needed to be done.. When we made it to the backyard, much to my dismay, I noticed my nice blue wood trim on the ground, looking like the pile of toothpicks in "Rainman". Unhappy moment #1.

    Trying not to become violent, I explained that it had been decided that the existing trim would be preserved.. According to the workman, this was impossible, but he claimed they could make the new installation look just like the existing trim. They continued working while I tried to get a hold of either the salesman (oh innocent me), or a manager. After many phone calls, I did get a hold of a manager that was currently working at another site, not too far away. I told him of the disaster in progress, but he refused to come by and look. He told me he had total faith in his workmen, that they had never done a shabby job before, and there was no reason for him to come and look (I guess an angry disappointed customer on the verge of a stroke is not a good enough reason). Unhappy moment #2.

    When the workmen thought they were done, it was inspection time. On the outside, I had 1 inch of wood border on one side of the window, and 1/4 inch of wood on the other side. According to the workman, this was normal, since my house was crooked. On the inside I had 2 inch gaps where they had removed the old wood, but not covered the gaps with anything. Unhappy moment #3. Again I called the manager, and got the same story about his total faith in the workmen blah blah blah blah. THE GUY WAS 15 MINUTES AWAY BUT WOULDN'T COME BY AND SEE!!!

    The manager and the workman talked on the phone for a few minutes, and they decided that the workman would run down to Home Depot and get some wood to cover up the sides of the windows, both inside and out. This new trim was put on, but unfortunately, there was just no way to make it look like the rest of the house. To do that, they would have had to remove the new windows, trim them, and reassemble the little pile of toothpicks. I gave up. I was left with these pieces of wood crudely nailed and screwed into my house. Some of the screws couldn't go in all the way, and stuck out of the wood. They tried to cover that up with bathroom caulking. Not effective. You can't paint bathroom caulking. Unhappy moment #4.

    I just wanted these people out of my life. I gave up and let them leave, I'll try to fix the damage myself someday.