The big day is here!

Today is a good day. It is a day I have been waiting on for a long, long time.

Nope, not my birthday. Not Christmas. Not a child's graduation or any other truly grand life event.

No, today is the day we have all the windows and the sliding glass door in our house replaced. We will finally have a clear view outside from the living room, I will be able to open all the windows in the spring because they will have screens, and the exterior door in the dining room will be much more secure.

I know. A little anti-climactic, isn't it?

But this is a HUGE day for us. As much as I hate the idea that we have to replace the windows in a house that's only 10 years old (and really they needed to be replaced ... oh ... seven or eight years ago) I am so excited we are finally able to do it.

We have been living with foggy windows for a long time. First the seal in one of the living room windows cracked, causing condensation between the panes. Then one by one the rest of them cracked, too, and before we knew it we could hardly see through any of the windows clearly. Eventually it got pretty drafty in here in the wintertime.

 

This was one of the worst. Makes you feel like you need to rub your eyes, huh?

When we tried to make a claim on the warranty, which was nearly up by the time we got around to it, you'll never guess what happened. We got blown off until the five year warranty period was up. (Oh yes, that's sarcasm.) I didn't feel like fighting it and didn't really want the same crappy windows replacing the junky ones we already had, so I made Steve swear that we would just have the windows and glass door replaced at some point - with quality products - and never have to worry about it again.

So here we are. Finally.

The installers have been here for just a couple of hours and I am already so glad the idea of taking this job on ourselves was only ever a fleeting thought. I'm pretty sure there are some things in this world that need to be done by professionals, and this job is worth every penny of that big check I'm going to write this afternoon.

 Install! Woohoo! (Terrible pic, I know. I was holding the dog with one hand and operating the camera with the other.)

I haven't had enough coffee to be too philosophical this morning, but I can tell you today is about much more than new windows. What we are able to do today represents for our family a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard work. The ability to cash flow a project this big didn't happen overnight, and being able to do things like this is one of the reasons we make this crazy life of ours work - so we can pay off debts, get much needed work done on our home, provide for our children, and still have a little fun along the way.

Today I'm watching those sacrifices pay off in a big way and that makes it all worth it.