Boy has it been a month of spending money on the house.
Over the last month we have had a number of things done to the house for various reasons. Some were good experiences, some not as good, and some with hick ups.
So where to start…
My wife and I had decided that we wanted to get new windows in the house. Over the winter I noticed that I could feel the outside cold when I was sitting a couple feet from a window. Also, we had windows that didn’t open correctly, and some that slide back down once opened, and some that made a terrible racket as you raised or lowered them. It was something that needed doing. Well, we ended up with a national company that has a local branch and they made us, “A great offer”. We talked it over, but only had a limited time to “get the great deal” and so we decided to go ahead with it. We got mostly double hung, low-e, argon filled windows made by Alside. They were ordered and just a couple weeks ago they were installed. The installers did a good job. They were efficient and fast. They did all 27 windows in a day and half. There was an early issue when I realized, after they had already started cutting on the third or fourth window, that my original horizontal blinds weren’t going to fit correctly with the new windows installed. The new windows are deeper, and they had to cut into the house some. As a result the blinds would now sit out of the frame of the window and look terrible. I told the guys to keep going and install the windows correctly so they would look and work right. But I had to call the window company and have a discussion about that with them. After some back and forth, “Oh well, something like this should be expected to possibly happen.” “Um, no, I was told everything would be returned to normal expect that we would have nice new windows.” “Well, I guess we can discuss new window treatments.” I had done some looking and my wife and I had talked about eventually changing out some of the blinds, but this meant we had to do it right away. The company and I came to a resolution that we were fine with. Here isa picture of the house with new windows:
I like them so far. They seem good. They don’t get as hot as the old ones did, and the house does seem a little quieter from the outside noise (at least a little). They also all move really well, and I like the double hung nature of them. Also, the bathrooms now have a privacy glass (Rain) and that is really nice. Before there was a large clear window right next to the shower in the master bedroom that was easy to look into from the driveway (and the street if in the right place). We also had some stucco that needed repair and repainting after the windows were done. That wasn’t a surprise to me. The guy they had come in for that was great. He was very meticulous and made sure everything was exactly right.
I guess from here I will move to window blinds. As I just stated we had to get new blinds for our upstairs windows. So, we went with cellular blinds. I ordered them from Lowes after doing a lot of research to see where I could get the best deal and it was on their site. I had the entire order all figured out including blackout blinds for the bedrooms and light channels for the blackout blinds, and then I went to the order page and the Lowes’ website said that I could order NONE of them. There was no available quantity. I was irritated because they were running a 50% off sale that ended that day, but it was too late to go to Lowes to do anything about it. A few days later I decided to go down to Lowes and see what they could do. A very nice lady named Lisa helped me and then she had a manager approve the 50% off since I wasn’t able to order online. They got ordered and they said they would be delivered on July 27, but they all came only a few days later. So, I spent a chunk of a Saturday and Sunday afternoon installing them. Here they are:
They are all bottom up and top down blinds. I really like that since we can pull it down a little to let some light in but still have privacy, it is also nice with the double hung windows since the same can be done with them. There was an issue though – a big one. The light channels for the blackout blind in the bedrooms were described, and shown in a picture, as being U-shaped such that the blinds would go up and down inside the channel. That would then block the light on the edges of the blinds from getting into the room. They were an added cost of around $30 per blind. When I opened the boxes I found a cheap $5 piece of L-shaped plastic. Well, 2 of them, one for each side. They were worthless. There was no way to attach them to the window, no instructions on how to attach them, and they didn’t even really fit in the window with the blinds that well either. So, I took tried taking just those pieces back to Lowes to see if I could get y money back for those pieces without having to return the entire blind and re-order them. I dealt with the nicest people at Lowes, Michelle and Katy. They worked with me for over an hour to try and get the money back. Of course these parts were embedded in the price of the blind, so they could just return them. The finally figured out that the only way it was going to work was to just credit me the price of the “plastic”. Everyone that came by during my time there that asked about what was going on all agreed that the price of those things was outrageous ($46 per window before the discount). But it all got figure out, and those people at Lowes were awesome.
Finally, our AC hasn’t worked correctly since we moved in. Last summer I just chalked it up to being new to IDaho, but this year it was evident that something wasn’t right. When it did click on for our upstairs reading 78-degrees it was work, but in the next hour it would be 79, and maybe even 80 or 81, and the AC was running. So, I asked around and got some names of places/people and had someone come out and check it. Sure enough the coolant was WAY down. Therefore a hole was present somewhere in the system. There was no clearly evident holes. The guy who came out said he could out a “hole sealer” through the system and then charge up my coolant, but that the fix may only last a month or two, or maybe as long as a year or two. And the fix wasn’t cheap. Well, our HVAC unit is 24 years old, and undersized for our house. As a result my wife and I decided to have companies give up quotes for replacing everything (AC, gas furnace and air handler). We got 4 quotes and they all gave us varying opinions on what we should put in. The last company we had out gave me what I felt was the best option, and a fair price. But I reached out to Falcon Air in Arizona since I have known the own for a long time, and trust him immensely (if you are in AZ and need a reliable and good HVAC company use them). Scott got back to me after looking at all the quotes and agreed that the fourth company was the best option for my house. It took me a couple days to get them on the phone to say I was ready to order the unit (that was annoying), but when I did they said they could be out the next day to install it all – AWESOME! They were here all day doing the tear out and install. They even installed the new zone controller I ordered from Amazon. And they put in a new quick disconnect right not to the outside unit. Both units are bigger than the original units. The outside one is probably over twice as big as the one that was there before. And the new air handler/furnace is taller. The filter is all the way at the top if you can see it there in the picture. I am happy. They tested the system and the air was coming out of the vents cold, and you could feel the cold coming out. I am quite happy so far. Here are the pictures of that:
Haven’t had much time to see if that is all working well yet since it was just installed and we had family vacation planned in there. So, I am assuming it is going to be awesome. It is a York unit and I am very pleased with that. A 2-stage furnace as well so that will be good during the cool months.
So, a lot has been done on our house, but I really think that is it. Not much else can be done at this point I think (knock on wood).