Woo-hoo for windows!

Not the operating system, silly—the real glass and vinyl kind. The window company called Thursday and said they could come out the next day, so I called my boss and arranged to take the day off. We were afraid we wouldn’t get them installed until some time in November. We love them. All of a sudden it’s very quiet in the house. We can’t hear the wind; there are no panes rattling and no drafts in the kitchen.

Today is a great day to test them, as the wind is blowing over thirty miles an hour and it’s down in the 40’s. We went shopping for curtains yesterday and found some for the family room—big panels with loops at the top. I left the old curtain rod in place since I couldn’t seem to find an extendable rod that was long enough. The new curtains look great. I am especially pleased that I no longer have to put up the shrink wrap plastic on that huge family room window (122” long by 48” wide). The French doors still need plastic, but that’s not a bad job.

We had a total of eleven windows installed, and the worker dudes did it all in six hours, with no lunch break. They barely spoke to each other, but went right to their work—kind of like Santa when he landed in Clement Moore’s poem. They threw the old frames into the driveway, but cleaned up all their mess before they left. They looked for nails and such, and so did I, but I didn’t find any. Eagle-eyed Kathy found eight screws the next day.

We couldn’t find curtains that we wanted for some windows, so we bought some of those paper shades, supposedly popular in new houses with lots of windows (according to the saleswoman in Penney’s). I managed to ruin the first one, pulling the little plastic string guide thingies off with the first tug of the cords. But I learned from this mistake, and ruined the next one, but in a different way. They’ll stay down, which is all we really wanted. It’s an alternative to entertaining the neighbors behind us with our strip acts in the bedroom.

We’ve noticed that it’s much quieter in the house now. I can’t hear my obnoxious neighbor’s air compressor or his loud cursing at his children. Can’t hear the windchimes. Can’t hear dogs barking, cars going by. It’s kind of nice. Isolating, but still nice.