slowly but surely

Friday, Jeff and I had an estimate done for new windows. The windows that are currently in our house are original to the home (circa 1925), and are in various stages of disrepair. Some have panes of glass that will fall out, almost all are missing screens and storm windows, and many of them are nailed shut. Other than the obvious safety hazard these windows pose, they just weren't working for me, since when I pictured owning a home in the spring and summer time, it has always included having our windows open to let in the breeze and make the house smell "springy." Also, it'd just be nice to not have such high heat and electric bills. Wallside came out and did the estimate (Bill...he's pretty cool). They nearly drooled over the phone at the idea of putting in 25+ windows. It was hilarious! After getting the estimate done, we realized we just can't quite afford to do all 25 in the main rooms of the house, or the added porches (we didn't even include them in our estimate). But, we did decide to get some replaced, and its enough of them that we should definitely see a difference in our energy bills! We also will qualify for the entire $1500 tax credit on our 2010 taxes, and we can have an energy audit done with DTE and get money per window we are replacing. So, May 14, we're getting our new double hung (read: easy to clean), low-e and argon gas filled (read: energy efficient) windows with locks and screens! (Oh the things that excite me...having a screen on a window is a big deal...and knowing that they open, of course!) Plus, that eliminates one of the main sources (well, potential sources) for lead based paint in our home. The whole exterior is another story...
Anyway, if you're in the market for windows, let me know. We chose Wallside because they had a comparable product to competitors but at $100 less per window, custom make the windows and install them themselves (they don't contract out), and most importantly, they sold us on their product instead of telling us how bad everyone else was. I basically handed Bill an opportunity to bad mouth a competitor and all he said was that he's found it's more effective to sell your own product and know you can stand behind it, than to spend all your time bad mouthing all the competitors. That was a HUGE selling point for us. Anyway, enough about our windows. What's with the snow??? :)