So you may remember me mentioning that our house was damaged in a storm back in June. We had the insurance adjuster come out and the findings were that we needed to replace the roof, replace a few windows (the seals had broken), a few window screens, the shutters, gutters and get the house painted. Plus get the car fixed.
So far, we have accomplished one of those items. The roof was replaced on July 29th, two days before my knee surgery. It looks beautiful. Since then, we have had countless meetings with the windows guy, but no windows have been even ordered yet. The windows are a huge problem, actually. We have wood windows, original to the house (built in 1992), and they are extremely expensive to replace. They are also extremely energy inefficient. The way to go is to do vinyl, but a more expensive vinyl, since we have to match the wood grain trim that is everywhere else in the house. I would love to switch to painted trim, but again, it would mean ALL the trim in the house, the doors, the banister... The problem is, if you change even one window, you eventually have to do them all.
If the insurance company will only cover a glass replacement because the seal is broken on five different windows, that is all fine and good, BUT one of those windows also has a small half-moon-shaped nick left by a particularly large hailstone in the plastic portion of the exterior frame. So that means the total window needs be replaced according to the insurance guy. That's fine...the problem is, is that the manufacturer of our particular windows is no longer in the biz. There is no other way to source the needed parts either. Soooooo, if one window in a bay window needs to be replaced, and vinyl is our only option, then to make it appealing inside and out, all the the windows need to match, so therefore all the windows need to be replaced. Which means a lot more money than the insurance company was bargaining. It also means that the pair of windows directly above this bay window need to be replaced too. Which means that there is a behind-the-scenes fight over who is going to pay how much to solve our windows dilemma. A special claims guy from our insurance company, who hails from 'Nola, is paying us a visit next week. A full THREE MONTHS since the roofing job was completed. He will be meeting with our windows guy and hopefully they can come up with an agreement about how much will be covered. In the meantime, I expect our pocketbook will be taking a serious hit.
In other developments, some random person (from the company we hired that is handling all of the repairs) showed up last week confirming what color we wanted the new gutters to be. We don't have the house painted yet because we have been waiting on the windows for a full THREE MONTHS. So we had no idea what to tell him about the color. Then, on another day, another guy with a handy-dandy Honda Accord pulled up, again unannounced, to pick up the shredded window screens that need to be repaired. I'm not sure what he was expecting to pick up, but it certainly wasn't full-sized window screens. He said he would ask somebody else with a pick-up to come by the next day. At least she called before she came by.
Sigh. So I called the contractor to say that no matter what is happening with the windows, we need to move forward on the house painting before it gets too cold and wet. He agreed. That was last Monday. I've yet to hear when the paint guy is coming. We do have paint chips in hand though, so we're ready for him whenever he shows up on our doorstep, most likely unannounced.
At least we have a solid roof over our heads, so I am very thankful for that. I just can't imagine getting windows replaced in November or December. Totally goes against all common sense, in my opinion.
