Dendard's

When we bought this house we knew it needed some work. On the scale of fixer-upperness, it ranks at about a 6.

It's structurally sound and for the most part, aesthetically pleasing. However, it's got the original 1960's kitchen and bathrooms, which I wish were hip and retro, but are, unfortunately, far from it.

The bathrooms, in fact, remind me of my old high school locker room, with all the tiny blue and white tiles -- even topping the vanity. The only thing it's missing is the big foot-pedal-operated tub sink and the smell of mildew and Aussie Instant Freeze hairspray.

And while the house has many, many windows, which lend to it's open, spacious feeling -- a huge selling point -- the windows too are originals and thus, drafty and inefficient. Each time I hear the furnace kick in, I can just see dollar bills slipping out from between the cracked glazed panes.

And so, that brings me to a recent trip to Denard's (as Crowbar calls it) where we spent a fat wad of cash on replacement windows. And since we're finding nothing in our house was built using standard sizes (we've got a door that's 34 7/8" wide, when every other door known to man is a standard 32" or 36") it was no surprise that all of our windows had to be custom ordered.

Now, it must be said that the only thing worse than dropping a wad of cash at a store only to be handed an alarmingly small bag of goods, is to drop a wad of cash and then leave completely empty handed.

So as we walked back to the parking lot with nothing more than a four-figure receipt in hand and the 'Save Big Money at Denard's' jingle stuck in our heads, we assured ourselves that the money we'd just spent was a wise investment. And to quell our major-purchase anxiety, we reminded each other that when the temperature dives below freezing, we'd be warm and toasty inside.

Oh, and the tax credit we'll get next year won't hurt either.

So, the windows should be here in a few weeks -- just in time for the deep freeze -- and yes, we plan to install them ourselves. We've watched enough DIY and YouTube to feel sufficiently prepared, plus we've got my dad, a retired carpenter, nearby in case we need a skilled hand.

I know, I owe you pictures of the house and I will post some soon, I promise.


P.S. The only time it's okay to drop a big chunk of change in return for a teeny-tiny bag, is if the bag contains jewelery.