We’re having new windows installed in our apartment tomorrow morning. I hope we won’t have an unexpected snowstorm.
The back story is that we have had crappy windows ever since we moved in here, and the landlord has never been too keen on replacing them. Because the rent is very reasonable – in fact it has never been raised since we moved in about 9 years ago– we have just learned to live with the inadequate windows.
We get by during the winter by jamming wacky foam insulation strips around the edges and taping them up around the perimeter with clear packing tape. I know that sounds beyond tacky, but it really didn’t look like the Beverly hillbillies lived here because all that was hidden by the blinds.
Anyhow, the windows finally gave out. In September, we noticed that one of the windows was dangerously close to falling completely out of the casement when we tried to open it. In another one, only the storm window was separating us from the elements, as the top part had fallen to the bottom and we could not raise it at all. So there was really no way the landlord could deny reality any longer. It took some time to get around to getting things all in place so he could get it taken care of, and so now window installation in December in Chicago it is.
It is now 11:00 at night. We have done nothing at all about moving the furniture and stuff away from the windows. You would think we could plan ahead for something like this, but that would tarnish our reputation as the ultimate procrastinators. So now we have to wedge ourselves out of our chairs and begin the midnight furniture moving.
Sometimes I just can’t stand us.