You know how sometimes you're really busy and kinda stressed, but you just can't stop yourself from adding one more coal to the fire? Maybe it's just me.
Monday night Mom and I sat down with a door-to-door salesman of windows. When the house was expected, we were made aware that the windows in our 1965 house were original and would need to be replaced sooner than later. We have some rot issues on the sills outside, and, once we moved in, discovered that only every other one actually opens. So, when a guy came knocking on our door that first week selling high-quality windows, Mom made an appointment to sit down with him as soon as we could find the table.
The company is American Exteriors. They are a green seal company based out of Littleton, CO, with offices in Mendota Heights. The salesman was very professional and walked us through the company history and values before leading into any major talk of product. The company has a hands-on manufacturing philosophy and builds each windows to spec. (They don't build a bunch of windows that lie around in a warehouse.) Each one is made for your house when you order it. That's pretty cool.
On top of that, the energy efficiency, the sealing technologies and the heat reflecting abilities of the glass are amazing. For demonstration purposes, our rep produced a heat lamp from his bag and showed us the heat transmissions through single pane, double pane and the panes on an American Exteriors window. It was incredible. With the first two, I could literally feel the heat from across our 48" table, but with the AE one, I couldn't feel anything until my hand touched the glass. So cool. And very powerful when you're talking energy savings. Oh, and did I mention the lifetime warranty? If (I totally mean when) that baseball goes through the picture window (I sure it will the neighbor kid's fault, right Urban?) they will replace it for free! Just the cost of the trip out (about $50.) Hmmm. Did he notice we have two boys, or is that perk for everyone? Another cool feature is that the glass can be brought to a streak-free shine with just water and a paper towel! My mom audibly gasped.
Now, I have to interject a bit here to let you know about my mom's affinity for door-to-door salesmen. She was a counselor in a high school when I was young, so we always had summers off together. I can't tell you the number of times that I would come home from playing to find her in the living room watching a vacuum demonstration or talking to the Fuller Brush Man or the Mormons. I remember one time we actually let an encyclopedia salesman stay at our house because he didn't have anywhere else to go! Gone are those days, for sure. But, for a woman who bought her piano from a door-to-door salesman, watching the window demo on our dining room table must have been pure joy!
Anyway... We moved forward, having been suitably impressed. I walked around with our sales rep measuring and counting all the windows, then we sat down to crunch numbers. The quality of these windows is right in line with a Pella or Anderson, the main difference being - this is a vinyl product and not wood, but the cost difference falls closer to high-end than to the big box home improvement center.
The nice thing for us is that we are on a semi-busy street (mostly ped traffic) and right across from a park with athletic fields. There are a lot of eyes that see this house. So, we were fortunate that American Exteriors offers incentives to help them with their marketing. They do not advertise in the conventional way, it is all word of mouth, so they offer very generous discounts in a tiered system for those who are willing to market a bit. (Did someone say marketing??!! Now you're speaking my language.)
We ended up qualifying for the full extent of discounts. YAY! And work will start in about 3 weeks. All of the work is done by American Exteriors employees or exclusive contractors, and there is no down payment or payment of any kind until the work is complete, and you are satisfied. It's really nice.
So, needless to say, we are thrilled about our future windows. And, of course, I will keep you updated on the progress. I just hope that they don't overlap the parties I have planned... Oh and what about the solar roof?? Hmmm. Did someone mention something about coals??
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