To-Do List: Small Windows

Originally part of an $8000 order with Pella, the small windows were cancelled owing to unacceptable lead time. On a whim I looked at the products offered by Lowe's, my vendor of choice for much of the house construction materials. Lo and behold, there were the windows I needed, at lower prices, and with a three-week lead time. The total cost dropped to $6812. I saved nearly $1200 and several weeks of precious time! Lowe's would be delivering all of the small windows on 21 November, and the sliding glass doors on 24 November. I even received confirmation:

However... when the delivery dates came and went with no windows, Lowe's informed me that some ghost in their computer system spuriously scheduled deliveries for orders that hadn't even arrived at their store! Worse, they couldn't tell me when to expect the actual delivery. After I'd complained up a blue streak, Lowe's finally determined that the orders I placed never made it to the manufacturer—but their ordering system pretended they had, sending me delivery notices for phantom shipments. So naturally I cancelled both orders.

Ultimately, I should probably thank Lowe's for botching my order, because it forced me to improvise: I got off-the-shelf Andersen windows from Home Depot for around $100 each. Settling for white meant paying roughly one-third as much for stock windows I took home right away. It'll mean having to paint them, but with a savings of well over a grand, ask me if I care! The first three I installed on 26 November in the pouring rain:

Only one quibble: the HD website said they're reversible—the same unit can be either left- or right-opening. They're not. And they only sell one style. But fortunately I was no longer that fussy; I just want to finish my bloody house.

The last of the small windows was installed on 29 November. It was a Pella window. And it was the wrong size (off by an inch). But I wasn't going to bother having it replaced—I'd already gone through too much grief with them; I just wanted to be done with it all, so I made it work.

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