White windows that is. The day finally arrived and our new windows were installed on Tuesday. You should see me doing a little dance right now – lots of tapping and hand waving!

Two days after we closed on our home back in March, a very large storm moved through the state lasting almost 2 days. We received LOTS of rain and were not only able to see how our property handled severe weather and flooding, but we also became aware that some of the windows leak. Fabulous. Sorry honey, we can’t update the barn just yet.

Since it’s never a good idea to ignore leaking windows, we had them inspected wherein it was discovered improper installation was the culprit for the leaking. We decided to replace all of the windows except those on the back porch because they are protected from the elements. After doing some research, pricing and extensive discussion, we decided to use the Pella distributor in our area. Pella’s reputation proceeds itself and they also warranty the installation as well as the windows. That was a huge deciding factor for us since improper installation was the problem.

Once the decision of “who” was made, we had to decide on the “what”. Vinyl, fiberglass or wood-clad, grilles or no grilles, single-hung or double-hung, on and on and on. It can make your head spin. Since we were replacing a whopping 10 windows, expense was definitely a priority. Vinyl was the most cost-effective approach for us and was still a drastic improvement from the original dark aluminum windows that were on the home.

The dark windows don’t really bring life to the house in my opinion.

The color is what stumped me for some time. With the vinyl windows, we had the choice between white and almond. I immediately thought the almond would work perfectly with our wood house and the interior wood trim. But, the more I thought about our future plans of staining the house Cape Code Grey, the more I realized white was the better choice.

Now, that looks MUCH BETTER don’t you think? It’s like a breath of fresh air!

We had to decide whether to go with grilles or without grilles. Although grilles would have followed the Acadian style, I decided against them because I felt they were distracting. Forget the rules! I march to my own style beat anyway. The old master bedroom windows never had grilles and we really enjoyed being able to look out at the property and not having anything obstruct our view. The new windows are wide open and you can see EVERYTHING from any window.

The final matter was single hung or double hung. This is a decision that matters a lot to my fellow house cleaners. Single hung allows you to pull out only the bottom window towards you so that you can clean the exterior side of the window. The top portion of the window remains fixed and you have to go outside to clean the exterior top portion of the window. Double hung allows you to pull out both the top and bottom window portions from the inside, without having to trek outside. I was accustom to having single hung windows at our first home and didn’t mind stepping outside to clean the exterior top portion. But in our new home, we have a second story which we didn’t have before. It is a totally different experience cleaning the exterior top portions of upstairs windows. That requires ladders and a lot of hassle that I would rather live without. Anything to make cleaning easier is what I want. Final decision was single hung downstairs and double hung upstairs. Perfect choices I think.

You can tell Andrew was doing this by himself to show me how cool his new windows are now in his office upstairs.

The 2-day window installation process wasn’t too bad. I was anxious Annie the first day because that was the tear out day where we would find out if the leaking windows caused any major interior damage. Luckily, everything was in good shape on the inside of the walls. Thank you Lord!

We lived with a little bit of chaos on the farm for a couple days. The dogs were cooped up inside for awhile but they survived.

Not sure if you notice but the house is a much lighter shade now. We hired a pressure washer who believes our house wasn’t cleaned EVER. It took him 4 days to finish the job but the wood is now clean as a whistle.

Here’s the before:

And here’s the after:

The front is a little dark in that picture because of late afternoon lighting and the wood was still wet from pressure washing but you get the idea.

Once the repairs are complete and we treat the entire house with Bora Care (treatment for drywood termites and carpenter bees), we will finally be ready for staining. I’m very excited about the colors we picked out with our painter and I can’t wait to send updates soon. It’ll be beautiful!

Meanwhile, on the farm…

I’m currently in love with this budding friendship you see before your eyes.

Yes, Sparkle visits Nibbles every morning when she heads out to pasture and when she returns to her stall each night. Of course Nibbles loves the attention and doesn’t seem to notice the fact that Sparkle is a huge horse. How can you not love this unique duo? We realize that our Sparkle girl might need a companion in the future. It’s not absolutely necessary but horses do love the company. Obviously she desires a friend if she’s resorted to this teeny tiny pig!

We certainly wouldn’t have thought we would be battling termites, replacing windows and caring for this crew of rescues after only 3.5 months on the farm but we couldn’t see ourselves anywhere else. We have been able to witness Sparkle’s transformation from an insecure, sad, malnourished horse to a more confident, stunning beauty that is touching people’s lives in ways you can’t imagine. Her big brown eyes allow you to see into her soul, one that was once damaged and broken but is now healed and free. We watched her run around the pasture for the first time not long ago and it was magical. Moments like that on the farm have touched my heart so deep there aren’t words big enough to describe it.

During moments of stress and anxiety, I look up and thank God for blessing us with such beautiful examples of His glory all around. There’s so much goodness around us that the obstacles we face don’t look so bad after all.

Until next time…