Damn! I am good!

Today I did something I never knew I could do, something that, for my entire life, I figured was beyond my grasp. Something so mind-bendingly difficult that few before me have ever been able to achieve; I replaced a window!

Yep, you heard me, Christopher Mark Brooder, replaced a window. Let’s put this in perspective for those of you that have never met me or even seen a photo of me. I am a photo/computer geek who may or may not have been a high school thespian.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am also a man’s man. I hunt and fish and camp on occasion and I can build a fire like no one’s business, and man, can I grill! But fixing things? Isn’t that the reason there are people on this Earth that do those things and people on this Earth like me hire those experts to fix things? That is how I am; If you want something done right, pay enough money.

OK, I will be honest with you; I had help in replacing this window. Someone who is way more skilled than I in the art and craftsmanship needed for such duties. Someone who is quite skilled with their hands and who has a natural ability with woodworking and the like. Of course I am referring to my fiancée, Susanne. Duh! Who else?

We first called around to see how much it would be to get someone out here to do it for us. What we found is that it would be in the neighborhood of $200 – $250 with an estimated time of 2 hours. We thought that was a bit much so Susanne said we would do it ourselves. Of course what I heard her say was “I will do it myself”.

We went to a local hardware store to get the replacement glass. We measured the remaining glass at least 3 times before heading out. We knew exactly what size to get. After getting the glass we still had a few more errands to run, then we headed back home “to do this thang”! I unwrapped the glass from the paper only to discover it was the wrong size! Susanne measured it and sure enough it was. So, back to the store we go.

We get home, take it out of its wrap again and woila! Perfect! I place it in the door and Susanne and I place the molding around it. 15 minutes later we were done. Total amount of time speant on this project, not including the extra trip to the store, about an hour. Total expenses; about 8 bucks!

OK, 8 bucks. 8. Our quote was between $200 and $250, remember? Plus 2 hours to do it. And this is from skilled people that do this for a living. Susanne and her slightly retarded fixer-upper guy did it for less than 5%(!) and half the time quoted.

Here is today’s lesson: This stuff ain’t as hard as you think nor is it as expensive as may be lead to believe. If you have a project that you have been putting off because you think you are incapable of doing it, don’t believe yourself! You can do it. Perhaps get yourself a fix-it-up book and use some common sense and I’ll bet you may just surprize yourself. I did!