Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Home Renovations - replacing windows and doors

Old door on the left, NEW door on the right!
I am so excited - by Friday, I will have a new front door. And windows. And patio door!  A few years ago, hubby was doing some renovations and something fell - and shattered the glass next to our front door.  We didn't have the money to replace it, so he blocked it off with wood and we kind of forgot about it (well, not really - but it was easy to just put off replacing it). Today begins a transformation for our home of 8 years.  We are having ALL of our windows replaced, as well as our front door and our patio door.

We have known for many years that they needed to be done - but money just wasn't there.  Hubby would "bandaid" them by caulking around the edges and trying to seal them best we could.  However, the condensation inside the windows and draftiness weren't the only issues.  Our frames were rotting.

This was made even more apparent to us approximately 6 weeks ago. I noticed an ant in the upstairs hallway. Killed it and moved on. I figured it had come in on something, as we had been spending quite a bit of time outside.

A few days later, hubby and Mr. J noticed 5 or so inside Mr. J's bedroom. Hubby ripped the room apart, vacuuming and cleaning (he found some hidden crumbs - apparently Mr. J had secretly brought food upstairs) and hoped we had solved it. A few hours later, there were more crawling around the walls.

We finally tracked the source to the window. After doing some research, apparently ants LOVE rotting wood. That was it, window needed to be replaced.

I called the company that did our neighbours (we had both heard of them before, and our neighbours were very happy with them - so happy that they used them for all the windows over a 2-3 year period).

We decided to have a quote on everything, but figured we would do 4 now, 4 next year and finish off the 3rd year.  After getting the quote, it was a little cheaper than what we had been thinking would be the case (well, I say that - it was HALF of what I had in my head, but I know NOTHING about this type of thing, and it was slightly less than what hubby had thought).

We looked at what we had in the bank, and what we could come up with and decided that we would just go ahead and get it all done now (slight discount in price that way also)

So today, the replacements begin.  I am so excited to have it done. Hoping that it will save us a little money on our heating bills in the winter too....
Have you done any home renovations recently?

18 comments:

  1. Well, what haven't we done!!?? We had to do windows about five years ago and that was a killer. But yes it helped. Then our furnace went and that was another killer. Still paying that baby off. Then this past September our roof was replaced. Brutal!!!

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    1. oh man...our roof was done the year before we bought the house, so we are good on that front for awhile. Furnace and A/C were replaced in 2008 (but hubby's parents did it for us!!!) After this, we will be saving for new floors (hardwood in living/dining room) and new carpet upstairs...but we want to wait until the kids are older and don't spill as much :) Thanks for stopping by for a "visit" Paula!

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  2. We had our last house perfect, exactly how we wanted it. We bought this one thinking it had just been updated, but they basically 1/2 arsed everything and now here we are with a list as long as our arms. We found mold in the basement and had to redo it. We now have to redo the kitchen...that's next on the list!

    Thanks for linking up with my comment love! You can link up again at: http://www.theknitwitbyshair.com/p/commentlove

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    1. oh no, that really sucks about the new house. Thanks for the visit!

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  3. We had to do a couple of windows when we bought our home, but this year was all about the new roof. Ugh. Had to be done though :)

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    1. I am glad that all of the big things are out of the way for us now (at least for a few years) We had a small leak in the roof, and when the company came to repair it the guy told me that it is in GREAT shape, and we should get another 12-15 years out of it!
      Thanks for commenting

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  4. That is so exciting. You are going to notice a huge change in you hydro bills. Are you getting energy efficiency ones? If so you might qualify for a gov't grant. Worth looking in to it

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    1. I certainly hope we notice a difference. I haven't looked into any grants - I thought they ended all of those in 2012....hmm, now I will need to do some research

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  5. Not recently.... but when we move back to our home in Alberta we will be doing some work!

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  6. We have been doing things gradually over the past few years we have replaced most of our windows, replaced our kitchen counter top and painted the cabinets in the kitchen as well as the bathrooms, put hardwood flooring throughout the house and replaced stairs with hardwood. We have also done a ton of landscaping, but it never seems to end! We also repainted our interior doors and updated the hardware and hinges. Your door looks wonderful and I love your hardware, I wanted those for our interior doors but unfortunately, it wasn't in the budget :(

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    1. Thanks! We really like it. A little pricey, but we did them gradually so it wasn't such a hit to the bank!

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  7. Oh my goodness. Just thinking of all the work that needs to get done makes me bummed! LOL! We own an old farm house. Need I say more? Sure, it's rustic, comfy, welcoming, and homey, but I want NEW, REVAMPED, MODREN.

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    1. good luck with all the work when you do it - thanks for stopping by!

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  8. That's awesome. Congrats! Changing windows/doors makes such a huge difference in the overall appearance of a house. All the best with the reno's.

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    1. You are so right - the appearance changes! The front is so much more welcoming now than before! Thanks for visiting

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  9. Love the new door! Having a window in it brightens things up a bit more doesn't it? Excited to see more of your renos!

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    1. Thanks Tasha - that's it in the reno department for now though

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