Liz works in the double glazing industry and knows that site surveys are massively important ahead of ordering materials. There are an infinite number of styles, technical solutions and, of course, costs. We want to get this right - not just from a cost perspective, but the right windows in the house will compliment it and the wrong ones will forever be wrong and visible both inside and out. The surveyor at Liz's workplace, Phil, and his partner Vicki agreed to come visit us for a long weekend at the end of August and help us get this right.
The journey up was 'eventful'. We'd filled the car up as usual, this time with the new boiler which we had collected the week before. John's new company car didn't come with a spare wheel of any kind, and although he'd thought about buying a space saver, he'd decided not to. All was going well on the Friday night (bank holiday weekend) drive up, until just south of Glasgow the motorway was closed for overnight maintenance and we were booted off. John was driving and clipped the kerb or a raised grate and instantly knew - this was not going to end well. The tyre was going down big time and by the time we stopped 2 miles down the road it was completely flat. 'Pump and go' which is put in the boot instead of a space saver simply doesn't work when the hole in the tyre is more than 1mm (for example a screw), whoever designed and marketed it really does deserve taking down a dark alley and giving a good kicking.
In fairness to Jaguar Assistance, a truck was sent pretty quickly but we were worried that getting the car to the house on a truck would just result in us not getting back home on the Monday as we could only imagine then being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no help nearby. Rightly or wrongly, we drove to the nearest Kwik Fit (open 8:30am the next day) and slept (well, didn't sleep) in the car (as all hotels nearby were full) and got back on the road relatively quickly in the morning after the Kwik Fit guy did as sterling job. And we walked into Hamilton and got a great breakfast while we waited.
All part of life's rich experiences, but lessons learnt:
Watch out for raised grates on dark roundabouts ....
Always have a space saver - even if you have to buy one yourself for your company/lease car - there's even a website exactly for that purpose! It's £150 all in, delivered to your door
When you phone the AA or whatever, explain your situation (I'm going another 60 miles but I'm travelling back home Monday) and they may have some options you hadn't thought of
McFarlane and Sons spent a week in October 2023 sorting out the boiler for us, in good time for winter, moving it out into the garage. Originally it was to allow space for us to create a nice big second bathroom by knocking the old boiler room/utility through to create a bigger space without the old boiler in situ. Sadly this plan has gone by the by as we won't now be renting out a room or two, so the extra bathroom is not needed. Anyway, the boiler was also changed to a side vent out through the wall, rather than having a large chimney through the roof, and should be more energy efficient, as well as introducing great features like a valve so we can have the hot water and heating on separately, thus saving us money in the longer term, and reducing the need to keep topping up with oil to feed the boiler so much. Lovely job!
Back to the windows - measure once, measure twice, type into the ordering screen once, check it twice. A window will fit, or it won't - just 5 mm too big is 'won't fit' and it's so easy to get a number mixed up or the specification wrong. The photos are of John getting a taste of Liz's world - very satisfying! (And the new boiler.)
The windows were fitted early March 2024, and Phil and Jesse did a spectacular job. The house feels lighter, brighter, warmer. We have removed some of the bars from the windows to improve the view, and the energy efficiency of the upgraded glass should also help us keep the warmth in in colder months. We went for black Kommerling frames in chamfered bead to keep them clean and unfussy, and an Origin sliding door in aluminium as they're beautiful and have slim sightlines. And finally, a Solidor composite door between the garage and the house to help with insulating the house and also security, and another for the front door, which we think is a gorgeous transformation. It's fabulous to get such a big and messy job out of the way, allowing future projects to now be planned. What do you think?
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