what's 1/2 an inch

So, here we are, getting ready for Manic Renovations^TM and Roo gets the idea that he should measure the windows which were delivered as promised and are stacked neatly in our garage.

Oh dear.

One is not right. One is 1/2 an inch too tall.

Perhaps not an issue if it was going to be an only window, solitary on its own piece of wall, but this particular window is going to be 3 feet away from another window and the idea was that they would actually be the same height.

Here is where you insert some gnashing of teeth.

The whole windows thing is in.sane. Let me tell you, that installing the things is actually easy. I'm talking about replacing your old, single pane, metal frame things that sweat all over the sill, and are drafty and cold. It's easy to get the old ones out & slap the nice, new, energy star, double pane, vinyl frame ones in.

The hard part is ordering them.

I'm convinced now that this is a conspiracy between window manufacturers and the contractors who install them - to make the bleeding ordering process so convoluted that most homeowners will give up on doing it and will pay a contractor three to four times the actual cost of the window to do the job.

To order them you first have to have several insane conversations about rough openings & actual window size - conversations which meander back and forth so many times that you begin to seriously doubt that you know how to use a tape measure and you pull out your kids' math books to review the unit on measuring things, just to check that you have not actually lost your brain, but that you're speaking with nitwits.

Then. Then, the guy who takes the order has to take the order and enter it into a computer. I hope that when you read that you will do it with a reverent tone. Make it sound like, oh, I don't know, "and then world renowned Dr. Smith will remove the patient's brain, use the flexray laser to excise precisely .1 mm of tissue and replace it in the patient's skull".

Yeah. Like it's that hard.

Three weeks ago, when Roo placed the order for the windows at Home Depot, he had to go back to the store THREE times, on THREE different days. The first day, the guy flat out said he had no clue how to place the order.

The second day, the new guy said he knew how to do it. An hour later, Roo read through the print-out of the order form (which resembles lines of Cobol but fortunately Roo's old enough to remember Cobol) and discovered it was wrong.

On the third day, finally, someone with a clue showed up to work and finally the order went in.

And then - Jeldwen screwed up. The order form SAYS 47. They made it 47 and a half. Why? Why? WHY?

So we were faced with keeping it & hoping that the eye wouldn't notice the difference between the two windows, or sending it back and waiting 3 weeks for a replacement (oh & enjoying yet again the process of ordering).

Roo spent an unpleasant couple hours with several levels of management at Home Depot, looking for some semblance of customer service. In the end, we're getting a new window and we got some gift cards to ease our pain.

Manic Renovations^TM start tomorrow, with an amended plan which now takes into account a missing window. Can you say hole in the wall?