Home Improvement

Late last March the kids and I were racing around the house, pulling up all the blinds and watching a big storm roll in.  Our final stop and best view was the master bedroom, where Shawn and I rarely take the time to pull up our blinds.  As the kids and I huddled together in front of the window I pulled up the blinds and was greeted by a gigantic circular crack slightly larger than a soccer ball.  The kids were still fixated on the blanket of dark grey clouds ready to burst overhead but my mind was racing with how and when this crack had occurred.  I finally remembered a time a few weeks before when we had heard a large bang against our house.  When we peaked outside to locate the source of the sound we saw the neighbor kids scurrying inside their house with a soccer ball in hand.  We were pretty sure we had heard their ball ricochet off the side of our house, but we had no idea it had made contact with our bedroom window.  We hadn't even thought to look. 

Left: our old window with a large, circular crack in the top right.
Right: our new window the Shawn installed himself.  

Shawn taped the window and headed out of town while I earnestly prayed for the tape to hold and for nothing major to happen to exacerbate the problem.  Shawn immediately started figuring out the best way to replace the window, and his careful research clearly showed that the most affordable way was to replace the it himself.  We had a friend who was able to order the window for us through a wholesaler so we decided to go ahead and replace both of our bedroom windows at the same time.  With the help of one of Shawn's co-workers, plus numerous tutorials on youtube, Shawn got to work. 

The first window took the better part of a day.  Getting the broken window out of the wall was surprisingly tricky and standing on the uneven, slanted clay ground outside our bedroom made it extra challenging to balance and hold the new window steady.   After running into a few unexpected set-backs, Shawn called a friend and together they were able to finish the job.  About a month later Shawn sailed through the instillation of the second window without a hitch, this time with just me on deck to help if needed.  I nervously stepped in for about 10 minutes total and the rest Shawn handled like an expert. 

The broken widow finally out! 

While I was initially upset at myself for not checking our windows after hearing the noise and addressing the problem with the neighbors right away, Shawn redeemed the situation by using his calm and friendly demeanor to bring it up after the fact.  The kids privately admitted to their parents that they had broken the window and we honestly didn't think anything else would come of the situation.   We were pleasantly surprised when the Dad flagged Shawn down and said, "my wife said you installed the window yourself! What did it cost?" Shawn told him and a few days after that they came over with enough money to pay for the window in full.  It was an unexpected blessing for the cost of the broken window to be covered and definitely a testament to Gods faithful provision for us. 

It was amazing to watch Shawn tackle such a big project and to do it with excellence.  I am continually thankful for his quiet responsibility and sincere dedication to caring for us and our home in the best way.  We have been enjoying our new bedroom windows since early June so I can confidently say, he did a great job!

I hope all is well with you. 

Love,
Erica