Ding Dong the Door is Gone!

Finally! 

This is the before. This door was old, drafty, cracked, faded, mildewed, heavy (when the door would shut the whole house would rattle) brass, dirty, hung wrong so you could see light all around the entire thing (It was like a pet door for insects) and it didn't lock well. 

We weren't sad to see it go.

I think they were sad that they had to carry that beast down the driveway.

Good-bye old nasty frame.

It was very chilly in our house yesterday. With both doors off it got to 62 and very breezy. Brrrr.

The back door is gone too. No more water coming in when we hose off the deck. No more doors blowing open in the middle of the night. 

The nasty faux wood trim that was put up so bad it wasn't even funny is gone too. 

It seems so much brighter in our non-existent entry way. 

These doors have internal mini-blinds. For the first time in over seven years we had some privacy while we ate dinner last night. Woot! 

We still have a lot of painting and work to do but it is going to be so much nicer when it's done. I mean that's real wood trim LOL! 

Now we just need to get rid of the hearts. But I love that the new door is so clean and bright. 

Home sweet home. We need to pressure wash the garage and make a decision on the shutters. Do we buy new ones? Paint the old ones? What color? Will pressure washing make it so you can't tell they were there? Do we really need them? Who is going to risk their lives to put them up? 

Right now I am thankful for an airtight house! The old windows and doors were so drafty. We can't wait to see the difference this winter. I think we're ready for the cold. Well I'm not but the house it ; )

Slowly but Surely...It's Getting Better

As I mentioned before we are doing a few necessary things to help our house. In 2011 it will be 20 years old. It's old enough that things are wearing out but not old enough to make it charming.

(We have the most amazing view of the whole valley but we weren't even able to enjoy it due to the broken bay window.)

This past Thursday we got our first set of new windows installed. We are hoping to get enough back from our tax return in the spring to do the rest.

Choosing windows proved to be a long a somewhat painful process. We had four companies send their salesmen to our home to give us estimates. We were so beyond sick and tired of hearing about glass, argon gas, and how great their product was. Some of the guys would go on and on for over an hour when all we wanted was a number.

They all quoted a lot more than we had to spend and bashed everyone else that sold windows. It was as if they wanted to make us feel like idiots for even considering "the other guys." I HATE that sales tactic. Just sell your product, don't talk crap about other people. In the meantime our refrigerator's water line broke ruining our kitchen floor. Great. That is when we decided we could only do half the job.

We were really struggling with what company to choose. There were two that we liked and one that we didn't love that came in with a better quote than the other two.  One guy was just a total jerk and not even an option. We were so frustrated because none of them felt right.

(It was totally fun being in a house with no widows. Paul and I both had an urge to jump out. I guess because we could? Too bad we're up too high. It wouldn't have been wise.)

One night I was talking to our neighbors and they mentioned that they had just gotten a big bay window replaced. They were really pleased with the window, the salesman, the company, the install, the price, etc. etc. Basically they had zero complaints. The window was a "brand" that all of the other salesmen managed to bash so at first I was leery. I asked if we could come over and look at their window. You know what? It looked basically identical to all of the other windows we saw during the presentations.

It was shiny and white, very clean, opened smoothly, wasn't cracked and the screen didn't have any holes. I didn't care what brand it was, it was a million times better than what we had! We called Daron at Therma Glass and he was totally nice. I emailed some measurements and he got right back to me. His quote was close to our budget. We were able to negotiate a little and the deal was done!

He and his two boys did the install. It's a family owned business that is backed by the Better Business Bureau and they have been in business for over 30 years. I love that. They were all really nice. When I asked if I could peek in on the progress one of the boys said "You can pull up a chair and watch!" I loved that they didn't mind me following them around with my camera.

(Holy Crap look how clean they are!!!)

We are all so in love with our new widows. The kids keep asking if they can open them because they open so easily. They literally could not open our old windows because they stuck so bad. We still need to buy blinds but even with it being in the high 80's and nothing blocking the sun our house is way cooler. We now have screens with no holes and a screen in our dinning room so we now actually use that window. Awesomeness!

We are still waiting for our new doors to come in but I can only imagine how exciting it will be to get those. Our back french door is almost non-functional right now. It will be so nice to have them both replaced. We will either buy new "shutters" or paint the old ones when we paint the door. For now we will be shutterless. Paul picked the tackiest blanket (A Pirate's of the Caribbean skull and cross bones blanket) to hang in Andrew's window. Good grief. Why? Why that one? Needless to say blinds are a priority at this point.  Our poor neighbors are staring at a pirate skull 24/7.

(Look a window track that isn't black!) 

After we get doors, shutters and blinds I will post a picture of the front of our house. Right now I am too embarrassed to even consider it.