It's no secret that I am a control freak. I am a type A, it-will-only-get-done-right-if-I-do-it-myself type of person. But at the same time I'm not the kind to attempt a DIY. I would rather someone come in and remodel my bathroom than do it myself. I'd hire painters if it weren't so expensive. And though I'm okay with having others do the manual labour, I want to supervise.

So Thursday morning came. I had the beds pulled out, I had all the curtains off, I had the rooms ready for the window and door guys to come. I waited. I waited. I waited some more. I finally got impatient (see my past post about lateness) and called Home Depot to get an ETA on the window guys. I'm sure in some circles 9:45 is a great time to start a job. When we had the roof done the crew was here at 7 am. That's my kind of worker!
So the guys came. Two of them. Two guys to install two giant bow windows, 5 other smaller windows, a double entryway door and a patio door. Oh, and apparently he was only scheduled to work Thursday and Friday. (the girl who scheduled it told me Thurs., Fri., and Sat.)
So he very casually told me that he'd get one bow window done that day, he'd get the other one done on Friday and another crew would come and do the doors. Um...that still leaves 5 windows. His reply (the poor guy, really in all fairness he didn't know what he was doing by opening this can of worms) I can't really promise anything but anything left over will get done Monday.

It's amazing how I can appear to be nice, calm and rational while I'm going up one side of you and down the other. Once I was done with him I had his assurances that the whole job would be done (correctly, because he'd be damn sorry if he had to come back to correct a problem) by Saturday.

Now, I'm sure it didn't hurt that he was a Newfie. Any Newfoundlander only need be in our house for 5 minutes before they figure out that someone here is a kindred spirit. If it's not the pictures of icebergs and lobster pots is the woodcarving in the shape of Newfoundland over the fireplace.
Well, that sealed the deal for us. The b'y got another crew to come out and those windows (all 7 of them) and the doors (both of them) in (and threw in some extras like insulation where there wasn't any before) and they were out of my house by 6pm on Friday evening.

And I survived.

I'm still trying to clean the dust out of the nooks and crannies but my house is not drafty anymore, it's a hell of a lot quieter and it looks darn pretty too.

God bless the working man!