You get what you pay for

The Keed.

It is finished.

At long last, our giant window-replacement project is finished.
Our bank accounts are therefore $18,000 lighter; the balance due. $10,000 against the home equity line of credit we shouldn’t have, and $8,000 from our Canandaigua National Bank checking account, which still has over $10,000 in it, and that’s before the vaunted eagle deposits our Social Security.
The final window (pictured) was installed yesterday (Tuesday, September 11, 2007). All the other windows were installed long ago, but a window was missing, so this one, which was originally contracted, wasn’t.

The Keed.

Before.

Only one guy came — he would install the window. He also was required to do final touch-up; things that hadn’t been done.
Quite a bit of caulking had to be done, a trim-board reattached, and drywall finished. He also tore out quite a few of the window-surround fascia-boards, replacing with new. (I guess they didn’t meet with his approval — must not be an engineer.)
He probably thought I was a complete zombie — I couldn’t say much.
(I remember thinking Pop-Pop Connor was a zombie too — he couldn’t talk much, and I think he had had a stroke.)
The Rochester-Colonial guy and I passed each other in the kitchen once, and I avoided eye-contact.
Avoided contact of any kind.
Many times he passed me and all I could do was stand quietly.

You get what you pay for.........

Well I am a zombie more-or-less.
I had a stroke and it compromised my speech; so since I can’t talk well, I avoid conversation.
When I walk the dog there’s a pretty good chance I’ll meet someone, but I keep to myself.
People wave and I don’t wave back unless it’s pretty obvious I could.
So Linda did most of the talking.
I said little.
When it came time to settle up, I was taking a nap.
These new windows are much better than our old ones, but essentially, like the shed, it was Linda’s project.
Although I initiated it; since I felt I had to — that is, initiated the trip to Rochester-Colonial.
But Linda made most of the phonecalls, and scheduled the work.
Our old windows were in bad shape. We still have quite a few old windows left, and Rochester-Colonial will probably get to replace them.
Far as I’m concerned, the $23,102.00 was well-spent. You get what you pay for.
The crew didn’t throw up their hands when they discovered the water-damage. They didn’t decide to bring in Ty Pennington and his blue-helmeted minions.
It was beastly hot, but they just fixed it.

RE: “home equity line of credit we shouldn’t have.....” My loudmouthed macho brother-in-Boston loudly insists our home-equity line-of-credit should be closed, since like him we shouldn’t have any debt of any kind. We keep it open should we ever need it. It’s the onliest debt we have — our mortgage is paid off, as are cars and credit-cards (we only have one)..

RE: “must not be an engineer.......” My loudmouthed macho brother-in-Boston was trained as an engineer, which makes him superior to me, who majored in History.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.

“Pop-Pop Connor” was my mother’s father. He died in 1954.

Rochester-Colonial was our window replacement contractor.

“Linda” is my wife.

RE: “like the shed......” The shed was installed last fall.