It has been ours for the last 13 years; we bought it the year before we got married and thought it was perfect. We had been renting a 700 sq ft apartment and when we bought 3x that size, we couldn't figure out why the current owners complained that the kitchen wasn't big enough!
Hah ha! Ha! Haaaa.
We were young and foolish then.
It wasn't a fixer-upper, 'cause we're just not handy like that. A little painting, a little electrical work, sure, but not the rip-up-the-walls and add-a-new-room types. Thus began the years of check writing.
First, we finished the basement. And by we, of course, I mean the company we hired because we would do horrible damage to ourselves if we attempted such a thing. This was followed by a massive interior repainting which we did ourselves. That was fun! Especially since it was the summer of the Miller moth invasion. Imagine being 12' up on a ladder, painting the ceiling when Miller moths start dive bombing your head.
The expression is creepy crawly, not creepy fly into your face and make you almost lose your grip and fall to your death/derangement/damage, thankyouverymuch!
That was also the summer that we discovered that there really is a limit to the number of moths your cats will eat.
That's when we also discovered that the vacuum with hose attachment is a great way to get rid of moths.
Um. Anyway! More years passed by and I was busy throwing hissy fits over the lack of counter space in the kitchen. This was combined with Eric's decision to go to law school and the knowledge that we wouldn't be able to move for several years, even if we wanted to. I then
I designed the kitchen on graph paper, lovingly, to scale. Eric wrote the check. We each have our talents.
Then, after we discovered the amount of damage Pixel had done to the basement walls, we had a mini-remodel in the basement (Ripped out the bottom 12" of drywall all the way around and 24" in the corners.) and put bamboo flooring down there as well.
After all that, the house was looking guuuuuuud. It was then time to repaint the outside from the eye-searing pastel yellow to a deep, intense shade of blue. A color that is not for the color faint of heart. The eye-searing had actually calmed down over the years, but initially it was awful. My apologies to those of you that like yellow and specifically pastel yellow, but it was never the color for us. I remember distinctly that when we pulled up to the house with our real estate agent that both of us took one look and were willing to pass. Fortunately the agent insisted we look inside. Smart lady.
And we looked upon our house and it was good.
Until we had a massive hail storm and had to replace the roof, along with everyone else in the neighborhood.
Oh and let's not forget last summer's remodel of the rooms for the kids. That journey began here and ended here.
Then, finally, after complaining miserably about being hot in the summer of my Preggosaurus-ness (First reference to Preggosaurus.) and noticing that the A/C couldn't keep the temperature below 81 degrees, we saw that the windows were shot. The double paned window seals were gone and there wasn't just a little moisture in there: it was a Biodome. Sea-monkeys could have set up shop in there, disappointing yet another generation of children for their failure to actually be...monkeys. (Nice job, sellers of brine shrimp. You suck!)
Ahem. Yes. Where was I?
Oh! So then Eric and I made a deal. He could buy his neat new-to-him car and I could get new windows.*
Score!
What?!
Oh.
I disappointed you, didn't I? I should have bargained for something else? Windows aren't as sexy as a new used car, that's true, but it is what I wanted and felt kinda like a luxury. Although it's kinda funny to call being kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer a luxury, isn't it? Hmm. Maybe I should've asked for more sleep?
No, wait. He doesn't have any of that either.
So windows it was! Errr...is!
I feel warmer already!
No, I'm not exaggerating. You can no longer feel cold air pouring down on you while you sit on the sofa next to the window. (I can hear Sierra cheering from here.) A definite problem when watching movies at night. In the winter. As an added bonus, the street noise has been cut down considerably.
Aaaaand!
The windows are clean.
That's right! It was all a ruse to avoid washing the windows! Bwaaahahahhaaa!
Aha! Ha! Heeeeee! *wheeze*
I need to get out more.
So, here's my question:
If eyes are the windows to the soul, what are windows? The eyes of the house? If so, (Eww! Creepy image!) 9 out of 16 of our house's eyes just had laser surgery.
Come on over! It's warm inside!
* The moral of the story? Rent. It's cheaper.
3 comments:
I would positively SWOON over new windows.
My house is 98 years old and some of the windows still have leaded glass in them.
I like keeping the old where I can, but let me tell you I would let go of those leaky windows in hot minute given the oppotunity, or the money to be more accurate.
It is totally worth the money. Think of the savings in heating and cooling and the environmental impact of continuing to blow all of that money out the windows!
At least, that's how I'm justifying it. Also, find a reputable company and only do the most important windows as you can afford it. We started with the bedrooms and the livingroom. Some other year we'll finish up with the master bath window, the sidelight, the decorative window over the front door, and the basement windows. They, however, were very low priority for us.
But the money is an issue. You should see if KS is giving any energy conservation incentives. There was a tax write off last year, but we missed the deadline. Stay warm!
Can't wait. More BSG!
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