Friday 16 December 2011

Windows upgrade

The first appreciable fall of snow for the Winter arrived this morning. It must've begun a little after 4am and left a light dusting whilst the thermometer was still below freezing. With the dawn, came a slight rise in temperature, so that the flakes became huge and soggy, resulting in an atmosphere of miserable dampness which is so much worse than any minus number in the dry.

In hindsight, not the greatest day to have most of the doors and windows ripped out of Tense Towers and replaced with improved double glazing. But, yes, one of the workmen was in a t-shirt.

The cold began to permeate through the house, as portal after portal was confined to the recycling pile, and I did my level best to keep the 4 man team fuelled with mugs of hot tea.

Second Born hurriedly left for the weekend, to visit old friends from her university days, and it only occurred to me as I write this, that the locks will be changed for her return. Mwah hah hah!

For peace and quiet, not to mention heat, Our Lass decamped to a nearby coffee shop, until she felt that sitting there for so long with one cup of latte was a bit embarrassing. She then went to another coffee shop to repeat the procedure. I did contemplate phoning all the beverage retail outlets in the area and warning them about a serial single slurper on the loose.

Around lunchtime, the weak Winter sun filtered through the clouds and I took refuge in the shed cum conservatory at the rear of the house. Here, tucked in between the clothes airer and the yet-to-be-decorated Christmas tree, I sat, typing furiously to keep warm. Meanwhile, outside, the birds went about their normal daily routine, happily ignoring the sounds of power tools, sawing and hammering, as they crowded around the seed feeders and fat block. As long as they're kept fuelled too, they don't seem to mind all the hullabaloo.

Ah well, time to put the kettle on again...

6 comments:

holdingmoments said...

You certainly picked a great day for an upgrade.
I'm sure it'll be all worth it in the end.

Imperfect and Tense said...

Oddly enough, there were 7 windows! I just didn't risk titling the post that :o)

Katie (Nature ID) said...

I'll be curious to hear whether you have an increase in the number of birds that hit your windows, like we had when we upgraded to coated, double-paned.

Iain Robinson said...

My experience of the double glazing replacement thing was two days of Radio One, which was bad enough, but the guys would insist on singing along... never mind, it could have been worse. I suppose with the windows fitted you now have an improved Vista? I'll get my coat...

Imperfect and Tense said...

Katie, The "west wing", which faces the bird feeders,was already double glazed when we moved in years ago. We've just brought the rest of Tense Towers up to a similar standard. I had not considered whether single or double glazing would have such an effect, interesting. Of course, on the down side, we'll hear less birdsong unless we open a window.

Imperfect and Tense said...

Iain, And there was me hoping for a non-pc reply! I was fortunate on the radio front, as in a pre-emptive strike, I unilaterally declared the area a Planet Rock zone, and they were polite enough not to complain. Though they did look a bit relieved when I finally switched it off.