Exhausted. A Good Exhausted.

Whew. Last weekend was quite a weekend. We were exhausted. Needed another day just to rest. As I wrote in my last post, the window installation had begun. We were originally told this would be a 1-2 day job. Greg didn't believe it. The installers confirmed Greg was right. It would take more than two days.

Friday was Day 2 of windows. It started liked most days have been lately. Cloudy with the expectation of rain. The installers arrived in the morning and continued the installation. Poppy and Sophie were shut in the laundry room to keep them from jumping out open windows and getting in the way. Maybe Poppy trying to escape the laundry room should have been our sign that something was coming.

The weather stations had been calling for rain all day long but we considered ourselves lucky because so far, just a few sprinkles. Late afternoon we heard some sirens. The sirens kept repeating and the sky was getting dark. We were under a tornado and severe storm warning. The guys hurridly kept working since some windows were strictly holes to the outdoors. It started to rain. The guys took cover in our garage as it poured. One worker hurried to install a basement window to prevent the pool of water forming outside of it from running in. The streets flowed like rivers. As the downpour began to lighten, we noticed that Oak St was beginning to flood. The neighborhood stood along the road, wondering how high the water would get. The window installers quickly returned to work. Luckily, the water didn't get any higher than this and quickly subsided. Photo was taken right in front of our house.

All windows were installed by Friday night. They said they would return on Saturday to finish trimming them out. The guys couldn't wait for this job to be done. It was one of the most difficult they had ever done. Our old windows were metal and were installed directly into the mortar. All the glass had to broken out in order to remove them. At one time I had thought about keeping one small window to reuse as a photo frame. Glad I changed my mind. The windows were mangled by the time they were removed.

Saturday we were up and working early. Greg and I painted the first coat of orange on the metal arch over the front door while Marilyn wiped down all of the window sills. Then we began cleaning up the house. Vacuuming broken glass. Wiping down the dust. Hanging up curtains. The guys finished trimming the windows. They have to return later to install one more window (wrong size ordered), replace two screens, and replace parts of 3 windows (one missing grids and two missing frosted glass). In the afternoon, my parents arrived. Greg and I painted a second coat on the arch while Mom and Marilyn washed windows and Dad removed hardware along the window trim from our old windows. Thank you for all of your help!

Yes, we let them relax later.

It is so nice to be able to open up all of our windows and let the air circulate. Many of our old windows were rusted shut and had never opened since we moved in. As much as we enjoy the new bright, clean windows, there may be two others who enjoy them even more.

Check out our photo blog for MANY more window photos.