Okay, I absolutely LOVED this window company’s guy. He was sweet, personable, knew his shit, explained everything very well, even Gidget came out of my office while we were sitting in the dining room going over things. She kept her distance, but she too thought he was a very nice guy.
Only problem: Those windows, fabulous as they are, are FOUR TIMES more expensive. They offer a concierge level experience, they deal with the condo approval, they deal with stucco repair and repainting after the installation (this is my first question because it’s a thing that is part of window replacement and it costs money.)
If they’d been even half again as expensive, maybe even nearly twice the price of the other guys, I’d have gone with it just for not having to project manage all the other pieces of the job. But there is no way I can rationalize those window prices. This is a nice, solid, high end Toyota/low end Lexus of a neighborhood. It doesn’t need Rolls Royce windows.
If I had a single family house worth upwards of half a million, I’d totally go with them. But his patter about improving my property value with this investment fell on cynical real estate ears. My property value is governed by the market, especially in a condo. I don’t need the most expensive windows in the neighborhood, I would in no way recoup that investment. So, sorry, charming, personable, truly excellent young salesguy, the numbers just don’t work for me.
As I’ve said over and freaking over, I want new windows that open and close properly, and keep the weather out and the AC in. That is all. This is a condo, so they have to match the standard window style in the community.
He DID know his shit about windows and gave me good advice. When I flinched at the price, he actually suggested I skip doing the giant expensive sliding doors to the balcony and just get them professionally serviced, because they aren’t exposed to the worst of the elements on my screened balcony and spending eleventy billion dollars to make them super-duper hurricane proof really isn’t needed. That would cut the price quite a bit. Ditto the garage window – get Lowe’s to do that sucker, save a lot.
So I’ll do this one more time with one more company, then decide what I’m doing. All I really want are windows that don’t leak and do open and shut. And as this is a condo, all those innovative window styles are wasted on me, because they have to look like the rest of the neighborhood. I know my windows are larger than standard and I was prepared to bite the financial bullet for the size differential, but OMG, I had no idea it would be this insanely hard.
O.K. I’m super curious about the whole Disney vs. the governor. Are your taxes going to seriously skyrocket? How bad is it going to get ?
My taxes won’t change, I don’t live in Orange County (though I can walk to the county line in minutes). Orange County’s taxes are going to go up about $2k per household. Basically it transfers infrastructure maintenance and fire services and a lot of other things from Disney to the adjacent counties, putting a huge operational burden on them. Osceola County will be affected too, but I think to a lesser extent because most of WDW is in Orange. I’m sure Disney will fight back on this, and I seriously don’t know why our asshole governor has decided to wage war on the largest employer in Central Florida, or put a new financial burden on thousands of voters and piss them off. He really is mini-Trump, a mean fascist asshole. But the Republicans in the state legislature just blindly obey.
So sorry about your condo association! I served on one when I lived in the DC area and they helped with most maintenance stuff!
Just curious, doesn’t your condo association help with this? It certainly seems they should. Good luck.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA–pauses to gasp for breath–HAHAHAHAHAH—no. I have no idea what our association actually does, other than pay the landscapers and the pool maintenance. Things that in a normal condo would be part of the building maintenance are somehow not here. Well, to be fair they did re-roof the whole place a few years ago. Let’s not talk about the shitshow that was repaving the streets. We have a dead bush/tree/not sure what it is, in our courtyard. They swear it’s not dead. It’s dead. Basically their strategy seems to be waiting out their responsibilities until the residents get fed up and do it themselves.