I Can See Clearly Now

We have two new windows in our dining room now. They're white vinyl, with spiffy locks and hinges that let you clean both sides without going outside. They've even got argon gas between the two panes of glass, though for all I can tell they could have banana fumes. There are twelve more just like them sitting in our garage, and two more sort of like them and yet two more not really all that much like them at all - eventually they will all have to go in.

Our neighbor Adam, a professional carpenter, is the Lead Person on this project, which makes sense since he is the one with the tools and the clues as to how this is done. I'm just there to be commanded. This is about right, as I have a defective Mr. Goodwrench gene and can cause projects to run off the rails merely by acknowledging their existence. My main contribution to most household projects is simply to stay out of the way long enough to allow Kim to finish them, and take the girls with me though sometimes they get to help out if there aren't too many Lethally Pointy Bits. I also lift heavy objects and occasionally reach for tall things. I'm a regular Bob Vilas, let me tell you. Kim loves these projects, which is a good thing since otherwise we would be living in a ruin. A shabby ruin, with outdated rocks. So we're a good team that way - Kim has ideas and energy, and I provide unskilled labor and occasionally height. Let me tell you, our rocks are stylin'.

It is a very good thing that Adam is involved here. Our windows are not standard windows. They don't have the depth that has apparently been standard since the Civil War, for one thing, and they've got all sorts of odd molding and flanges that regular windows don't have and which have to be removed without causing the rest of the house to collapse or float off to points unknown. It is therefore good to have someone with skills and tools on this project. I'm fresh out of those, and Kim is too busy earning a living for me to simply take the girls out of harm's way and expect the project to be done. Even with professional help, though, those two windows took up most of the day.

The windows are a lot brighter than the old ones. I'm not sure whether this is due to the white vinyl instead of the dark wood of the old ones, the lack of muntins (or is that mullions? Who can tell?) in the panes now, or the simple fact that the old ones were so difficult to clean that we seldom bothered. Those hinges will go a long way, let me tell you.

Two down, sixteen to go.