Upon my return from my 2.5 week sojourn I re-entered my domain with new energies and new eyes. I saw that my windows truly needed some serious cleaning. I have LOTS of windows, so this is no idle undertaking. I started with the kitchen and living area since these are the ones with the views of the woods and water that I use the most. Three glass doors and 11 windows of casement or sash! (I have 27 windows or glass doors on the first floor alone and this is why, to date, I have not hired anyone to wash them. I struggle through on my own spring and fall. The sash ones tilt out and are very heavy, so my history of doing this on my own will reach a point in time where I have to ask for help.)
I looked up window cleaning solutions on the Internet, got a spray bottle, rags, paper towels and got busy. I put something on the big screen TV to keep me from going insane with the 'wash on-wash off' nature of things. Three hours later I had finished that part of the house. As I went to close the last casement window above the kitchen sink, it refused to shut completely. I tried opening and closing and after a few minutes I got up on a stool and saw that the cross hinge at the bottom was not attached to the window. I worked for another 30 minutes trying to understand its dyslexia and even used some WD-40, but could not get it attached. Another session of huge rains was starting, so I climbed down off the kitchen counter after closing the window as much as possible.
That next morning I perused the yellow pages, the Internet, and Angie's list and found that my area is so nice and rural that window repair companies are less than a handful. I picked the first and called at 8:30 AM.
"Hello?" (He sounded like I had gotten him out of bed.)
"Um...do you repair window hinges?"
(short pause)...."yeah."
"I have an Eagle casement window that will not close."
"Um...where do you live?"
I gave him my address and he perked up a little. "Oh good, that is just a mile from where I live. I could get there in about an hour."
My antennae are already vibrating. (An hour...does he not have any business today? He is so lazy he only works a mile from home? He doesn't even identify his company when he answers the phone!)
He was intelligent enough to ask for my address before he hung up.
Well, he did finally arrive after about THREE hours knocking loudly instead of using the doorbell. He was a 50 something overweight fellow accompanied by another young 30 something man with long hair who looked a lot like Colin Farrell. Both were dressed casually, but at least clean and pleasant in demeanor.
"Do I have to take off my shoes?" he asked standing in the doorway.
Tabor who has the spine of a worm looked at his heavy construction boots and said "Only if they are really dirty?" I really need to buy some hospital shoe covers.
She directed both of them to the kitchen and they began to test how my windows open and close. As they proceeded, the older man asked the younger if he had a small screwdriver and the young man replied that it was in the van. I provided a screwdriver from my took kit to avoid them tracking more dirt in and out of my house. They also needed some wood glue, a small finishing nail and some pieces of wood...which I again provided from my handy took box which I had now placed on the kitchen counter.
They studied the identical working window beside the broken one and within minutes they had completed the repairs. The younger man went out to the truck to get something and the older man turned to me and smiled and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly with his hands in the air. "Well," he began, "Don't know what to charge you...Why don't you just give that young man something?"
That left me a little speechless. I was expecting an invoice and a minimum of a $50 visit charge.
I smiled with a little guilt and took $20 (all the large cash I had left out of my wallet after my recent trip) and gave it to them.
So now I guess I really do live in Mayberry or Our Town.
I looked up window cleaning solutions on the Internet, got a spray bottle, rags, paper towels and got busy. I put something on the big screen TV to keep me from going insane with the 'wash on-wash off' nature of things. Three hours later I had finished that part of the house. As I went to close the last casement window above the kitchen sink, it refused to shut completely. I tried opening and closing and after a few minutes I got up on a stool and saw that the cross hinge at the bottom was not attached to the window. I worked for another 30 minutes trying to understand its dyslexia and even used some WD-40, but could not get it attached. Another session of huge rains was starting, so I climbed down off the kitchen counter after closing the window as much as possible.
That next morning I perused the yellow pages, the Internet, and Angie's list and found that my area is so nice and rural that window repair companies are less than a handful. I picked the first and called at 8:30 AM.
"Hello?" (He sounded like I had gotten him out of bed.)
"Um...do you repair window hinges?"
(short pause)...."yeah."
"I have an Eagle casement window that will not close."
"Um...where do you live?"
I gave him my address and he perked up a little. "Oh good, that is just a mile from where I live. I could get there in about an hour."
My antennae are already vibrating. (An hour...does he not have any business today? He is so lazy he only works a mile from home? He doesn't even identify his company when he answers the phone!)
He was intelligent enough to ask for my address before he hung up.
Well, he did finally arrive after about THREE hours knocking loudly instead of using the doorbell. He was a 50 something overweight fellow accompanied by another young 30 something man with long hair who looked a lot like Colin Farrell. Both were dressed casually, but at least clean and pleasant in demeanor.
"Do I have to take off my shoes?" he asked standing in the doorway.
Tabor who has the spine of a worm looked at his heavy construction boots and said "Only if they are really dirty?" I really need to buy some hospital shoe covers.
She directed both of them to the kitchen and they began to test how my windows open and close. As they proceeded, the older man asked the younger if he had a small screwdriver and the young man replied that it was in the van. I provided a screwdriver from my took kit to avoid them tracking more dirt in and out of my house. They also needed some wood glue, a small finishing nail and some pieces of wood...which I again provided from my handy took box which I had now placed on the kitchen counter.
They studied the identical working window beside the broken one and within minutes they had completed the repairs. The younger man went out to the truck to get something and the older man turned to me and smiled and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly with his hands in the air. "Well," he began, "Don't know what to charge you...Why don't you just give that young man something?"
That left me a little speechless. I was expecting an invoice and a minimum of a $50 visit charge.
I smiled with a little guilt and took $20 (all the large cash I had left out of my wallet after my recent trip) and gave it to them.
So now I guess I really do live in Mayberry or Our Town.
What a story, you must have a guardian angel. I'm impressed by both your window washing and the generosity of your repairmen.
ReplyDeleteHe'll be someone to remember if you need future work done. That's how I feel about such and have seen that happen out here in the country also.
ReplyDeleteI kept waiting for one of the men to ask to go one place and the other to send you somewhere else so they could case the joint and do some petty pilfering.
ReplyDelete(I know my criminal lingo!)
Instead they turned into replicas of the repairmen here at Valley's End.
I don't believe it.
That's an amazing story.
ReplyDeleteWe have 55 windows and I had them cleaned once professionally. They broke 3 storm windows, because they didn't have a good system for remembering which one went to what window, and when they tried to replace them, they got some in the wrong slots and they fell. I was mad as all get out. Then they refused to get them fixed for me; wanted me to do it and take that amount off their invoice. That was 1992 and I haven't washed any of the upstairs windows (except on the inside) since then, I'm ashamed to say. The old storm windows have corroded and I can't get them open, so I am afraid to find out what I'd be charged to wash them now. OY!
ReplyDeleteAwww. Sweet. Next time this happens you'll know exactly how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteOur windows look terrible in the AM when the sun is shining in...don't know whether to wash them now, or wait through all of the cloudy months ahead and wash them in the spring...wait I think I just answered my own question...
That was really sweet of the workmen. Sometimes, these little surprises of life make your day.
ReplyDeleteLove the story...wasn't that a breath of fresh air?
ReplyDeleteWho was that masked window repair man?
ReplyDeleteSee, there are still good people out there. I always look at something like this "as a gift." In this small town I also come across instances like this. For years in large homes I did my windows. Then about your age I needed help.
ReplyDeleteNow I have someone do the outside and I do inside.
I'm moving into a cave.
ReplyDeleteWe often have repairmen who appear poverty stricken and when they do the job they refuse to charge us if it was a simple task. Of course we call them the next time but you can't help but wonder how they stay afloat. Now you should have paid the owner just for bringing a helper who looked like Colin Ferrell:)
ReplyDeleteIs it a real story? I thought at first that you were going to be cleaning out Windows on your pc. The pair of men who turned out were surreal. Hope the repair has worked.
ReplyDeleteThis and the story before about airport security have cemented your talent for storytelling and well as for photography! You made me laugh out loud.
ReplyDelete