Keeping the chill out

I have been meaning to blog this for three weeks, but I have been prevented from doing so by the typical excuses (insert your own here). Michelle and I have been meaning to replace 3 of the 4 older windows still left in our house, but have been putting it off for one reason or another. One reason, was cost. We had Home Depot come in and give us a quote and they basically wanted my first born and a second mortgage on the house in order to install what turned out to be 3 windows and only 5 hours. However, after a storm earlier this month that was accompanied by a lot of wind, I decided I needed to do something so that the shade does flutter in 6" into the house every time the wind blows.

Luckily for me, my friend and co-worker Dan convinced me how easy it is to install windows. The poor guy even offered to help not realizing that I was desperate and would not turn down his offer of help. Upon taking out the first window we discovered that the wood was in pretty bad shape and would need to be replaced. This required a trip to Home Depot to get some wood. Other than that things went fairly smooth. The windows we replaced must have been original to the house (1940), and were the old weight and pulley system. This meant there was a huge (2"x4") pathway for the weights to move up and down. This was only one more reason to replace the windows. So I filled the gap with insulation and after a little over 5 hours we had 3 new windows in place.

Now I can sit back and enjoy the savings. I probably will recover the cost of at least 1 window just this winter in heating oil savings. After 3 weeks I can tell a huge difference in the furnance pattern and how warm the house stays at night. Even Grace who really was attached to her old window thinks the new ones are great.

And the best part is, the three windows were installed for 1/6 the price quoted to me by home depot.

Thanks Handy-man Dan. Now if only he can help me with the hot water heater, the deck, the eaves, the painting, the ...