Windows... Anderson... UGH

The crew from Renewal by Anderson came to fix everything.  I missed the appointment back in March due to illness, so we rescheduled.  This is was first Saturday they had available.  Well, actually, I had it in my notes as October 12, but they arrived today.  :-/  Anthony and "Earnest" (not his real name) replaced the picture window's glass with privacy glass.  It was relatively painless.  A bulk of the work was just cutting the seal between the frame and the glass.  I just hope the silicon seal doesn't leak now that it's been re done. 

Anthony looked at the dual hung windows and said that he doesn't have any felt strips that can be placed anywhere to seal it better.  He looked at the lower sash and said that he thinks it was made incorrectly, and that's why it's not sealing properly!  I don't know why Rich didn't mention this.  Anthony said that the way the window was now, when it closed, because a piece was upside down, the window wasn't sealing.  He looked at the others in the room and one in the living room, and they were all like this.  He said he'd recommend that the lower sashes be replaced. 

They also redid the caulking in the bathroom around the window. 

Anthony said I should get a call in a week or two to schedule another visit to fix the front windows. 

I'm frustrated by the fact that these windows cost about 3 times what another contractor quoted me.  The reason I went with Renewal by Anderson was because my sister used them, and they seemed to have done good work at her place.  I can't believe it's been three service calls, and almost a year, and the issues I called about have still not been corrected.  I spoke to another contractor about the back wall, too, and he said that if they (Anderson) used an electric saw to cut out the old door (they did), it could have rattle the wall enough to break the seal, allowing water to get into the wall!  Whatever.  It's hard enough to get them to fix the mistakes that are completely clear they made.  Looks like this is another contractor mess that I'll have to clean up. 

Leaky Wall?

Who knows where the water's coming in from.  According to another contractor, when Michelle's old door was cut out with an electric saw, the vibrating in the wall could have broke the seal of the caulk inside the wall, and that's why water is coming in now.  He recommended that I just buy a can of water sealer and seal all the seams along the exterior of the wall.  I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought two cans of spray on water seal (Flex Seal).  I sprayed three coats along the bottom and top of the wall where there were cracks along the course of the day.  There's still some more left in the can, so I'll probably use up the rest of it later today by applying another coat.  What sucks is the only way to see if this works is to either hose it down myself (in which case if it fails, I'm going to have a ton of water in my kitchen), or wait for it to rain (and if it fails, same thing).  Either way, there's no sense in opening up the wall in my kitchen to fix anything until I know this is water tight.   

Anderson

So Michelle had some guys from Anderson doing repairs upstairs at her place.  One of her double hung windows was leaking and it stained the wall.  Her kitchen french doors were leaking, too, so they re-sealed it.  They came down to look at the damage to my kitchen wall, and they said they don't think it's due to the water leaking from her door.  What?!  I don't understand how if it was fine before her new door went in, and it started to leak after her new doors were installed, how is it NOT due to the work they did?  Rich decided that he wanted to come back with a long hose and test it out to see where it may be leaking from.  The contractor, Juan, said that I try to see if I can find where it's leaking from before they fix anything. 

They looked at the picture window - yes, it's not privacy glass.  Yes, the old one was privacy glass. yes, it should have been privacy glass.  Rich said he'll order a new one that's privacy glass to replace it. 

He looked at the double hung windows, slid his finger along the edge, opened and closed it a few times, then asked if the cloth diapers stopped the whistling.  Yes, they did.  He said there's a long piece of felt that he can have placed along the seam of the window that would effectively do the same thing, so that's what he'll have done. 

He looked at the caulking in the bathroom around the window.  Yes, it's cracking almost all the way around now.  He said they used the wrong type of caulking, and it'll have to be removed and re-done. 

He said someone from his office would contact me to schedule a time to have the work done. 

Windows....

Well that didn't take long.  I don't know what it is, but when it's windy, these dual hung double paned windows whistle!  It's driving me nuts!  Last night, I rolled up a bunch of Robert's cloth diapers and put them over the seams of the windows.  This has solved the problem for now.  I'll have to contact Renewal by Anderson to see what's going on.  They're supposed to call me to replace the bedroom window, too. 

Also, the caulking around the new bathroom window has started to crack already.  I'm guessing they didn't use the right kind of caulk...  UGH. Why can't anything ever be simple...

Windows!

We currently have 6 single paned dual hung windows in the front of the house along with one single paned picture window in the bedroom that we believe contribute greatly to heat loss. We can literally feel cold air streaming in through the windows at night.  Plus, when it's windy outside, so much air gets through the windows that we can visibly see the curtains moving... or our house is haunted and the ghosts get rowdy when it's windy outside. 

The window in the bathroom also no longer opens.  The hinge at the bottom has been rusted for some time, and it was only a matter of time before it got rusted shut.  That time has arrived.  The permanently shut window along with one of my bad decisions (not installing a ceiling fan when we were working on the bathroom.. and had the ceiling open), is resulting in a lot of moisture in the bathroom during showers and baths.  This needs to be replaced.  

It's a long time coming, but today, we got Renewal By Anderson windows.  From the date that I signed the papers to the date of installation was a little over 2 months.  We had a missed connection back on November 30, and we got rescheduled for this week due to possible rain that didn't happen.  The most pains taking part of this was that I had to remove all the furniture near the windows both times!  That included the bed, dressers, couches, and curtains.  It may not seem like a lot, but I'm the only one doing it all with a 1 year old!  A total of three guys showed up this morning to do the installation.  They mentioned more were coming to attempt to speed this up, but the rest of the crew never made it. 

Removing each window was a really quick process.  The one guy who arrived (around 9:50 AM) before the other two removed all six double hung windows by himself in under an hour.  They laid plastic along the carpeted stairs and paper along the hallway.  Tarps were placed under the openings where the windows were.  He removed thin pieces of wood trim around the windows, then cut the rope inside the rails.  From there, the windows (surprisingly) just came out.  The weight stayed inside the wall.  Seeing the holes in the wall now, I should've bought a few cans of spray foam and filled them with insulation.  Dang it. The new windows went in pretty easily, too.  One thing I noticed was that every window was slightly smaller than the opening (about an inch or two).  What they did from there was cut trim to size that snapped into the window and covered the gaps.  I was slightly disappointed by this since it gave me a smaller window for pretty much no reason.  The gaps between the window and the frame were spray foamed before the coverings were placed over them. 

The picture window in the bedroom was pretty nasty.  By nasty, I mean moldy.  It had a serious moisture leak, so I was glad this was getting replaced.  This new window, however, was not privacy glass as it should've been.  It was regular glass.  The installation crew said they'd mention it to the office and have someone later replace it.  This window was measured to the opening, and it was about 1/4 inch too tall.  The installation crew had to chisel out the frame on the exterior to get the window the properly fit.  This took forever.  Just when you think everything's going smoothly, something always has to cause a hiccup.  They got it done and put the window in, though. 

The casement window in the bathroom came out easily and went in easily.  The hardest part was having someone climb through it to caulk the outside. 

They took no breaks and no lunch, and they finished the job at 4:36 PM!  Just in time for me to vacuum, put everything back, then run to daycare to pick up Robert!  These guys are awesome!!!