Category: House & Home

New Windows & Our Shitty Management Company

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On April 22nd our windows saga finally ended when our village performed their final inspection and everything passed.

But we have to back up to December 2022 when we realized one of our master bedroom windows was broken. We knew that meant in 2023 we’d be replacing all our windows and patio door since they were 30 years old.

In the spring of 2023 we received a few window quotes and ended up going with the guy our next door neighbor used when they replaced all their windows and patio door. His price was half that of every other company. If our neighbor hadn’t recommended him I would have been leery, and it was a little more frustrating communicating back and forth since he wasn’t with a big company with a fancy contract, but in the end he and his two guys did good work and everything was installed mid September 2023. The windows have warranties, so all was good. Or so I thought.

The problem came when the village inspected the windows and failed one of the front bedrooms because the egress on that window wasn’t large enough for emergency evacuation, partly because a) code had changed since the original windows were installed and b) the new vinyl windows have larger frames that eat into the space. Our only option was to replace the window with a casement type (instead of double-hung), but since it was at the front of the house we opted to replace both windows (even though the other room had a second window that stopped it from failing inspection) as it didn’t make sense to have mismatched window types so visible.

Since he felt partially (more like wholly, since he handled the permit) responsible, the installer removed the old windows and installed the new ones for cost (ie paid for the new windows but not for labor). We were able to sell the two double-hung windows (and quickly) to recoup some of the extra unforeseen cost. Even with all that, everything was still way cheaper in the end, but it was definitely a long drawn out process that caused a lot of stress. I’m just glad it’s over now, and while I’m not loving the casements (I don’t like dealing with the crank to open and close them), we didn’t have much of a choice.

I suggested to our association management company they warn future residents of this requirement. Granted, if an installer followed the guidelines set forth by our village, this wouldn’t happen, but I think it would be a nice courtesy of the association management company given they have to approve window installation requests anyway. Might as well help the homeowner out instead of being a constant source of aggravation like ours has been.

Now we have to work on window treatments since our old inside mount blinds don’t fit in the window frame anymore. Ugh! It’s always something, isn’t it?

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Speaking of the shitty management company, every year they schedule a day for an outside company to come and inspect our fire alarms. We don’t get a choice in when this occurs and must be home from 8-4 for them to access all the alarms inside. They were scheduled to come on April 16th. By 1:30 pm they hadn’t been to the house yet and I was getting concerned, plus I had a vet appointment for Wookie at 3 pm (the latest appointment I could get for that day). I called the company to let them know it didn’t seem like they were coming out because a) they are usually out in the mornings and b) I hadn’t seen any activity in any of the surrounding buildings (who were also on the schedule for that day) and c) there was no truck in the neighborhood (I had walked Wookie around the block to confirm this).

I was assured they’d be out by 4 pm but I was skeptical (it takes awhile to do multiple buildings, plus I looked up the company and they are an hour’s drive from here so chances are they would be leaving the area by 3:30 pm to ensure they were back at their base office by 4:30 pm when they close). I asked the girl if she could please call the company and check if they were really still coming out and she said ok. She called me back five minutes later to say they were, and I asked her if she spoke to the company or her boss (our property manager). She said her boss. This annoyed me because I just had this feeling they weren’t coming, but what else could I do? Joe had to leave work early to take Wookie to her vet appointment while I stayed at home waiting for these people. Guess what? No one ever came to the house, so he missed hours of work he had to make up the rest of the week for nothing!

The next day I called to let them know no one had showed and the girl acted all surprised. Then about an hour later I got an email about the appointment being rescheduled. At this point I was furious. Someone lied. Either the girl I spoke with, her boss, or the company doing the inspections. I needed answers, and there just so happened to be an association meeting that night at our library, so we went. The property manager, and boss of the girl I spoke with, was there. When the topic of inspections came up, we wanted to know what happened. The manager explained he had touched base with the company that morning and they said they were still coming, but then at 1:30 pm he spoke to them again and they said they weren’t coming after all. As soon as he said the time I started shaking in anger.

I asked him when he assistant told me at 2 pm that they were still coming if he already knew at 1:30 they were not? The manager tried to say maybe she spoke to the company and I told him “no, she said she spoke to you specifically”. He didn’t say much to that, but what the hell? And why didn’t he tell her when he found out so they could field any phone calls or send an email to residents letting them know it would need to be rescheduled?

They expect us all to stay home all day on a weekday and have little regard to what hardship that might cause people. I don’t think they’d like it if they waited at home all day for nothing. If they had told me the truth at 1:30 Joe wouldn’t have had to miss work and make up time. It was his last week with his employer too (he got a new job), so the last thing he wanted to do was spend extra time there in the last few days.

I really cannot stand when people have no regard for other people’s time. And I really hate the property manager’s assistant. Not only is she a liar, she’s incompetent and I hope she gets fired and they hire someone with better communication skills (her emails are the worst).

Updated to add: our rescheduled date was May 13th and they did show up, but they wanted access to the attic which requires them to go into our master bedroom closet. I had bras drying in there, plus things I needed to move out of the way and it would have been nice to be warned about this new development (they never wanted attic access before). The guy tried to tell me maybe other companies skipped the attic but they always check. That’s bullshit because I’m the one here every year and it was the same company last year and they did NOT ask to go into the attic. I really hate both these companies for their piss poor communication.

January Recap

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01/02 (Tue) – Purchased the lifetime subscription to UpNote and moved all my notes over.

01/03 (Wed) – Made some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup. For years this was Joe’s specialty, but when he got COVID the first time I decided to take his recipe and tweak it. Now we can’t go back to the original because my version, while more time consuming, is so much more flavorful.

01/06 (Sat) – My friend came over for us to celebrate Christmas and my birthday.

01/07 (Sun) – Visited Morton Arboretum

01/09 (Tue) – Finally got around to trying this spiced chai (tea) we got at Trader Joe’s last year. It’s very good! One of the best teas I’ve had, in fact.

01/10 (Wed) – Nearly got run over in two separate parking lots while shopping.

First at Costco was an old lady backing out right as we were walking behind her car. Joe had to punch her trunk to get her attention. Luckily she wasn’t going very fast.

But the scarier incident was merely ten minutes later at Aldi when a lady in a giant SUV literally started peeling out of her spot, almost turning right into us as we were walking alongside her vehicle. She must have stomped on that gas hard because when she heard us yelling she ended up skidding in the spot trying to stop.

What the hell is wrong with people?

01/12 (Fri) – Did a major paper declutter/filing which was overdue (when isn’t it?)

01/13 (Sat) – Purchased Nintendo Online membership for the year so I could play some of the old Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. Namely, F-Zero and the Japanese version of Planet Puzzle League. What can I say, I like simple games.

Also installed a new Apple Watch screen protector after realizing mine had disappeared from my watch without me noticing right away.

01/14 (Sun) – Joe installed the new corner shower caddy, which we got from Costco for $60, in the upstairs guest bathroom.

I like that the shelves cannot slide down the pole like the old one that was using a rubber ring to keep it in place. It also looks nicer, and hopefully will not rust like the previous one. The thing I don’t like, however, is how the lowest shelf cannot be installed all the way at the bottom so that it sits on the corner of the tub. It holds the heaviest products, which makes it sag a bit, so all the bottles want to slide to the front. I find that irritating, and didn’t realize it would work that way until everything was put together. When Joe renovates the master bathroom, he’s going to put a large cutout in the shower so no caddy will be necessary.

01/17 (Wed) – Recycled and donated multiple items and did some shopping.

01/18 (Thu) – Joe works across town so we took advantage of that and met up at our village hall to check out a small bimonthly indoor market where we purchased tacos, salsa (verde), egg rolls, and cupcakes. All items ended up being underwhelming except two of the cupcakes.

The flavors from top left to bottom right are vanilla bourbon, whatchamacallit, chocolate malt, and cannoli. We’d only get the first two again.

01/20 (Sat) – Joe did some more work on our dryer. The slides keep deteriorating, so earlier in the month he replaced a piece on the top inside portion of the door that had worn down and put in new slides. The dryer was still squealing a lot, so he replaced the bearing in it as well. They no longer sell dryers like ours so we’ve been really reluctant to replace it as not only would we lose precious space in the laundry room, which is already cramped enough, but most of the dryers we’ve looked at have sloped tops on them. Why, I do not know! Our laundry room is also the entrance into the house from the garage so the dryer is a makeshift table for us and needs to be flat (we have a liner on top to protect the surface).

01/23 (Tue) – I had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. One polyp was found and removed, and even though the doctor thought I had issues with my esophagus, the biopsy results indicated otherwise. It’s a bit confusing, and I’m planning on making a follow up appointment with him to discuss everything further.

01/24 (Wed) – Cancelled Amazon Prime. It’s gotten so expensive at $140 annually, we rarely watch shows on Prime, and packages tend to get delayed so you’re not getting them in two days anymore. The breaking point came when they announced they’d be adding commercials to their Prime content unless you paid them $3 more per month for ad-free viewing. WTF? Even though, like I said, we don’t watch much Prime, it’s the principal of the thing. They keep jacking up rates and giving you less in return for your money. I think this will save us even more money in the long term since we won’t be placing orders until we have multiple things we want to buy.

01/27 (Sat) – Went to Woodfield Mall. It had been nearly a year since we’ve been in any malls at all (and the last time was Woodfield too, in fact). We no longer shop out of boredom (or for “fun”) and only when we need something specific.

They added a new anchor store called Primark which is based out of Ireland. I picked up a cheap pair of sneakers for walking on the treadmill since my old ones are literally falling apart. Was crossing my fingers they fit well (spoiler alert, they didn’t); these are the fourth pair of shoes I’ve tried. Not sure what is going on, but finding a comfortable pair of walking shoes has been difficult lately. Even the more expensive ones have been duds (such as the Pumas I got from Costco that I ended up returning). I did learn that I need the shoe to fit snugly (so even though I wear a size 8, I’m better off with a 7 or 7.5) and one that has a shape similar to an hourglass instead of just a wide toe box but narrow everywhere else.

The mall got pretty crowded by noon so we high-tailed it out of there and back to the safety of home, but not before picking up Bibibop. Luckily that location made everything as ordered!

Enjoyed the following movies and series in January:

Leo (Netflix) – An animated movie about a lizard (voiced by Adam Sandler) who talks to school children and helps them with life’s issues. Super cute and funny.

Self Reliance (Hulu) – Starring Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick, this was a pretty unusual movie that had you guessing what was really going on the whole time. Truthfully, the main draw was Andy Samberg’s cameo, which was a bit disappointing.

Interstellar – I’ve been meaning to watch it for years and after a recent discussion with a friend, who said it was one of their favorite movies, I felt it was time. Was it good? Yes. Would I ever watch it again? Doubtful.

Hijack (Apple TV) – Starring Idris Elba, this drama mini-series had enough intrigue and drama to keep my attention, although I didn’t find his acting in particular all that engaging.

Queenpins (Netflix) – Kirsten Bell is entertaining, which was no exception in this comedy about a pair of women who create a fraudulent coupon empire.

Ted (Peacock) – I wasn’t sure at first how I felt about this limited series, but after two episodes I really got into it. It’s amazing how far we’ve come with CGI these days. Ted looks amazing and blends in seamlessly with the actors. Plus the show is just funny.

School Spirits (Netflix) – What a unique premise – Maddie, a teen stuck in the afterlife, investigates her own disappearance with the help of her fellow dead schoolmates whose souls are also stuck on school grounds. It keeps you guessing until the last episode which still leaves you with questions, hopefully which will be answered in season 2.

November Recap

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11/01 (Wed) – Started the month off strong by getting our flu shots at the CVS in Target.

11/03 (Fri) – Joe’s daughter made us dinner (stuffed pepper soup), which we ate at his son’s apartment.

11/04 (Sat) – Visited my bestie, K, and brought Wookie along since she tolerates K’s dog, Teddy.

11/05 (Sun) – Woke up to a layer of fog which is always cool to see.

Visited the marsh and saw the great horned owl again.

Joe put up the new white cellular blinds in the living room. We had purchased them at IKEA in late September but left the paper black ones up in October for Halloween.

11/06 (Mon) – Saw an Eastern Chipmunk for the first time ever by our house!

11/07 (Tue) – Enjoyed some avocado toast for breakfast. I was never a fan but I recently cracked the code, at least for me – Ezekiel bread (from Trader Joe’s), salt added to the avocado, and Aldi’s asiago cheese everything but the bagel seasoning sprinkled on top.

Donated clothing to a place I found called Repeat Boutique. I like them because they allow people in need to “shop” for clothing for free, unlike Goodwill or Savers who keep raising their prices and seem to attract resellers more than anything.

We also saw a new gastroenterologist as we’re both overdue for colonoscopies. We really liked him and scheduled our procedures.

11/11 (Sat) – Had our first chickadee visitor to the feeder!

My dad messaged me online requesting help as their landline was down (and no one has a cellphone) so I put in a repair ticket with AT&T.

I found out there was a new update for my Apple Watch, but when I went to install it, I was told I need to update to the latest iOS (iOS 17) on my phone first. There’s a bit of an issue, though, and I’m so happy I thought to look into it before it was too late – the reminder app I use multiple times a day isn’t compatible with the iOS 17. In fact, the app hasn’t been updated in 8 years, so I guess we’re all lucky it’s worked this long. The developer doesn’t have a way to contact them (although I did @ them on Twitter recently and they kinda blew me off) and doesn’t seem interested in keeping the app going. So I guess I need to now find a good reminder app before I even think about updating, because everyone is saying it crashes and won’t let them edit reminders, etc, and I have reminders well into the future I do not want to lose (stuff like when to cancel a free trial and whatnot). UGH!

11/12 (Sun) – Another marsh visit and another owl sighting. It usually hangs out in one particular tree, down to the same exact branch, but this time we spotted it in a different tree altogether, and even saw it flying around because blue jays and a kingfisher were chasing it.

Before this, I did something dumb. We had purchased some Thanksgiving items at Aldi before going out in search of the owl and to the arboretum, including a 3 lb Butterball boneless turkey breast. I placed it on the counter while filling my water bottle, then promptly forgot about it. Didn’t think about it again until hours later when we were driving through the arboretum when it dawned on me I hadn’t remembered putting it in the freezer. Pulled up the security camera in the kitchen and sure enough, it was still sitting on the counter. What a waste of $12, not to mention food. Someone said it might have been ok (it was left out about 4 hours), but I wasn’t going to risk giving people food poisoning. Joe said at least it wasn’t TWO turkeys (which we almost got), so there’s that!

11/16 (Thu) – Saw two chickadees at once! I think they are a couple (a Google search revealed they often mate for life).

11/18 (Sat) – Did a little grocery shopping at Target and managed to procure two packages of the best Milanos Pepperidge Farm makes – the limited edition amaretto hot cocoa flavor.

Somehow managed to get the same nasty Dollar Tree cashier I wrote about in the October Recap, even though it was a different DT location! I immediately recognized her and was sad we’d have to deal with her. She was nicer to everyone before and after us than she was toward us. Perhaps it’s paranoia, but maybe it had to do with the fact that we were the only ones wearing masks? I know some people treat masked people poorly. As if trying to protect my health is a bad thing.

We also visited a store called Wild Birds Unlimited that sells, you guessed it, nothing but bird supplies. It was really fun to look around, but ultimately we left empty-handed. I would like to support a small business such as that, but it doesn’t make sense to pay twice as much for everything either. Perhaps if I was rich I wouldn’t care as much. They clearly aren’t hurting though, as they were quite busy.

11/19 (Sun) – Another trip to the marsh to see the owl (obsessed much?) where we also saw a large flock of sandhill cranes overhead.

11/23 (Thu) – The kids came over for Thanksgiving and K brought her SO. They introduced us to a new card game called Mantis, which we loved. So much so that I ordered it from Target for pickup.

Bonus – it was 50% off for Black Friday, so only $10.

11/24 (Fri) – Joe ran to the grocery store for a few items and came back with a surprise for me – Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes! Apparently they also make them in chocolate (psst, those aren’t great, I recommend sticking to the original flavor).

I also learned I can use the Canon app on my phone as a wireless remote for my camera.

This would have been helpful on Thanksgiving when taking a group family photo.

Enjoyed Thanksgiving leftovers, which are truly the MVP of the holiday.

11/25 (Sat) – Received our new bird feeder, which was discounted on Black Friday.

Who needs a new TV when you can get a bird feeder instead? ;)

11/26 (Sun) – It snowed enough to stick. Yuck. I did get some cute photos of the birds and squirrels in the snow, though.

11/28 (Tue) – Joe had his colonoscopy. I didn’t like how I wasn’t allowed to be with him until the actual procedure and needed to stay in the waiting room until he was in recovery, especially because they were running late and he didn’t go in for over a half hour past his scheduled time. They found and removed some very small polyps so he will need to go back in three years. We’re not really sure how many total polyps there actually were, though, because the doctor told him 6, there were only 4 documented on the illustration they included in his aftercare paperwork, and the biopsy report stated there were 5.

11/29 (Wed) – The chickadee couple, who disappeared for nearly a week, came back!

Also viewed my Spotify Wrapped results. These will come at no shock to anyone who knows me. Even the timing was on point – I listened to The Cure most in the winter months because, you know, melancholy, and Sofi Tukker in the summer because of happiness and positive energy.

I do wish you could exclude comedy albums from their analysis, though, because I start an album, fall asleep, and have to listen again over the course of a few nights to finish. I’m not obsessed with these comedians or anything.

11/30 (Thu) – We had our dryer vent cleaned. I chose a company recommended by the association which is different than who we used last year. There were two guys – one who went up on the roof, and one who did things to the dryer, including checking the hose in back and the lint trap, plus checking for gas leaks before and after doing the service. He also made sure the dryer was still heating up before they left. The last company just did work on the roof, sucking up the lint (which was really loud compared to this place) and didn’t check the dryer at all. I think we’ll stick with this newer company as they seemed more thorough (and the price was literally only $1 more at $90).

September 2023 Recap

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Started listening to a podcast called Morbid. I swear I used to listen to it years go, but none of the episodes were already marked as played in Apple Podcasts, so I’m not sure, but I really like it and there’s a huge backlog of episodes to enjoy.

9/02 (Sat)
Went on our second bike ride of the year at Cricket Creek where we saw a herd of deer. I chose that location so we could pick up breakfast from a Mexican restaurant on the way home.

That afternoon I ripped out a bunch of zinnias since they had gotten out of control. Next year I will plant fewer flowers.

9/05 (Tue)
Saw a bald eagle at Armstrong Park!

Obtained our REAL IDs from the state so we could get into Fermilab (they started requiring those, or a passport, earlier this year).

9/13 (Wed)
Our new windows and patio door were installed.

9/15 (Fri)
Purchased a pair of Sketchers from Target to replace the shoes I wear on the treadmill which are literally falling apart. A few days later I saw there was a Target Circle deal for 20% off shoes so I chatted with an agent to see if they could refund me the difference. They ended up giving me $15 back which was way more than I asked for, but who am I to argue? So instead of $30 the shoes were $13.88 which is good because it turns out they aren’t that comfortable for treadmill walking. I should have known better – I’ve never like Sketchers. I plan to keep them because they are slip-ons which comes in handy for walking Wookie, but I still need to find something else for the treadmill.

9/21 (Thu)
Wookie turned 7 years old! She has kidney issues which are currently stabilized with medication and a special diet, but it pains me to say she will have a shorter lifespan than her breed normally does because she will eventually go into kidney failure. I really do not like thinking about it because I love her so much.

We bought her a special treat – Milk-Bone Pup-Peroni Mash Ups which are described as “crunchy Milk-Bone biscuits, exploding with baked-in, meaty Pup-Peroni chunks”.

I figured they might be better for her stomach issues. She loves Pup-Peroni but they didn’t seem to agree with her. She LOVES these. She gets one every evening and she does a million little excited spins when she knows it’s time.

I tried to sign up for a paid Dropbox account so I could migrate away from Google One, but Dropbox didn’t want my money. Once I got to the payment page there was a “verify you’re a human” test that would say I passed, disappear, and then say “verification failed”. I tried it multiple times but got stuck in this endless loop of telling me I was ok and then saying “sike, you’re not! try again!” What a bummer, but maybe it’s for the best.

9/23 (Sat)
Visited the Morton Arboretum for the first time in about 5 years. Between my 2019 sickness and them changing to timed entry during the pandemic, it was no longer appealing. They finally dropped the time entry requirement for members, so we signed up. Fall is the best time of the year there, plus we can drive around the grounds in the winter and hopefully see some owls. We’ve been looking for them everywhere and have yet to spot a single one.

9/24 (Sun)
Went to both Fermilab and Mount Saint Mary Park again, but neither were as fruitful as our previous visit. It seems the birds just aren’t as active this time of year.

9/28 (Thu)
Had lunch with my friend, C. I drove to her place and then we went and grabbed food from Burger King to bring back to her house. It was a very nice afternoon.

9/29 (Fri)
An issue I had with Chick-fil-a was finally resolved. I had mobile ordered their limited time Honey Pimento Chicken sandwich on 9/9 only to find barely any of the specialty sauce on it when I opened the sandwich at home. I submitted a complaint online and other than an automated reply, never heard back. I even called their customer care a week later and all they could do is tell the local restaurant to call me, which still didn’t happen. So I called them directly and the woman I spoke with, Heather, was very apologetic and put five free items in my rewards account to redeem:

Two honey pimento chicken sandwiches
A caramel crumble milkshake
My choice of a few other sandwiches
And a free drink of any size

I got the special chicken sandwich and the milkshake the next day and both were delicious!

9/30 (Sat)
Went to a few nature places and then Bass Pro Shop to look at hiking boots. Ended up buying a pair that I plan to wear around the house to ensure their comfort. Afterwards we went to IKEA to look at window treatments and found some white cordless cellular shades that should look nice in the living room. We have been using temporary black paper cellular shades but decided black was too dark.

New Windows and Patio Door

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We finally had all our windows and patio door replaced on 9/13 after years of getting ridiculously high quotes (one place quoted us $8000 for the patio door alone). We ended up going with a guy our neighbors hired to replace all their windows and his price was nearly half that of the cheapest window company we could find. Are they the highest quality windows in existence? No. Are they nice looking white vinyl windows that are better than the old aluminum ones? Yes.

The one thing I’ll say is that while we did save a lot of money, it was a bit of a pain going back and forth with the guy to make sure we were getting exactly what we wanted. I’m sure that process would have been smoother with a bigger company, but in the end everything (mostly, see update below) worked out fine.

The guy and his crew, which included two other guys, arrived early in the morning and did all the work in one day, finishing up sometime around 4 pm I believe. I can’t remember the exact time, but considering we had a three panel patio door and 8 windows, I was impressed. I was told by at least one company the installation would take two days which I didn’t like since I knew Wookie would be stressed out the entire time.

I figured I’d list some things no one warned us about that might help someone else:

1) There will be dust EVERYWHERE, and I do mean EVERYWHERE. On every single surface, including those nowhere near a window. Of course the installers cleaned up all the big pieces of debris around each window, but a fine layer of dust settled on everything. Needless to say, I had to vacuum and wipe down every surface in the house.

2) The caulk around the windows will take days to cure and will be easy to mess up if you touch it at all within the first day or two (and even beyond that if you press on it with something hard/sharp). I wish the crew had brought this to our attention before I accidentally put indentations in the caulk near the bottom of a window.

3) The windows will need to be cleaned. Maybe other companies take care of this, but I was left with windows with fingerprints and little spots of glue all over (and sometimes fingerprints IN the glue). I guess that’s the price one pays when hiring someone who charges literally half the price of their competitors. Although don’t get me wrong, I will gladly take on that task to save thousands of dollars. Luckily they are double hung, so getting access to both sides of a window is pretty easy. That being said, it still took me over an hour to thoroughly remove the glue from two windows. There’s a lot of back and forth trying to figure out which side of the window the glue is on, using a razorblade to scrape it off, then using window cleaner to clean up the residue. Then you put the window back up, only to realize you missed spots. Rinse and repeat.

4) You might need new window treatments. We had inside mount white faux wood blinds on all the windows but the casing of the new ones take up more space in the frame now, so they cannot be reused unless we mount them on the outside of the frame. That’s not possible with the windows in our living room because the fireplace mantel is RIGHT there in the way. Not a huge deal, as the blinds are pretty old, and in some cases yellowed by the sun on one side, but I’m overwhelmed by the available options and having a hard time choosing what to buy. Right now I have curtains over the primary bedroom window for privacy, and temporary paper cellular shades over the other windows. We were able to reuse the vertical blinds for the patio door, however. I gave them a real thorough clean first (which took three hours) before Joe put them back up.

5) Because you don’t want to damage the aforementioned caulk, your windows will be bare for a few days. Otherwise the risk is too high that the caulk will get indentations all over when you install your window treatments. It was creepy as all hell at night, let me tell you. We felt so exposed!

All that being said, I’m still happy with our new windows and patio door. They look/function great (well, other than a small thing with the patio door I need to address with the installer).

Update (April 2024):

Back in September we failed our inspection with the village because the double-hung windows in the two front bedrooms were too small to allow escape during a fire. This is something our installer should have known, so that was annoying, and even though the one room had a second window that didn’t fail, thus not requiring us to replace the failed window in that room, it didn’t make sense to not replace both windows anyway since it would look dumb from the outside to have two different types of windows next to one another.

Therefore we ended up having to remove two double-hung windows and replace them with casement windows since they were the only type of window that would pass inspection. That was done on 4/10. The installer redid the windows for cost (aka didn’t charge us for labor, only for the actual windows, since he was largely at fault) and then we sold the two double-hung windows via Facebook Marketplace.

I hate the way the new windows look and function – they crank open, which means you have to be cautious about keeping them open if it’s especially windy out as they could be ripped off their hinges or at the very least damaged. Also the screen is on the inside and spans the entire window whereas with the double-hung windows the screen is on the outside. Unfortunately, we had no choice and have to live with it.

I suggested to the association that they warn people moving forward that they’ll need casement windows in their front rooms, but I doubt they will do it. Sure, the window installers should catch this when applying for a permit, but it’s still aggravating that neither the village nor the association bother to give anyone a head’s up, thus saving them time, money, and frustration. Instead owners don’t find out until after the windows fail inspection. This already happened to another resident before it happened to us (which we learned of at an association meeting), and I have no doubt it will keep happening depending on which company is tasked to perform the replacements since the association and village do not request the window type/measurements to ensure they adhere to code before the work is done.