After waiting months for our custom windows and doors all but three have arrived! The last three are the ones that make an arch over the top of our large Panoramic door. It will most likely take us the three months until they arrive to install the ones we have! Without delaying longer here they are!
I absolutely HATE getting deliveries via freight shippers. It is super stressful because every single shipment is damaged. Thankfully (so far), the damage has just been the crates but I am not talking about little chips or cracks. It seems like the people that drive the fork lifts are just randomly stabbing at the crates blindfolded. It is a true wonder we didn't have to send anything back!
Meet Mutt, he drives the forklift like he is driving a low rider beater car from the 90's. Seat reclined WAAAAAY back, driving with only the wrist of one hand touching the wheel, feet WAAAAY out in front, sunglasses on, spending more time looking to the side than where he is going.
He only listens to his coworker Ali G.
Ali G is the one directing Mutt from the ground. Together they load and unload freight together....at least in my mind these are the guys.
In all seriousness, EVERY time we had a delivery the crates were either smashed or had clear forklift punctures. Each shipment we had to determine if we should refuse or accept it. The whole time the driver stands there scowling at you because you are "wasting their time". One little signature on their sheet means you accept it no matter what it looks like inside the crate. Sending it back means another three months to make a new one only for it to be transferred by Mutt and Ali G again. Accepting it means the thousands of dollars and months spent waiting could result in damaged goods.
The delivery for the iron front door was a total disaster. The company called to schedule the delivery for a Friday but almost an entire week later it was still "in transit". The tracking info on their website indicated I needed to call and set up a new delivery day because it was so late. I called on Thursday morning the week after it was supposed to originally arrive (it was finally in our state according to tracking). They scheduled us for the following Monday. At 4:30 pm, the same day I called to schedule the new delivery day, I got a call from the delivery driver saying he would be there in 15 minutes! His response to me telling him I wasn't expecting delivery until my scheduled day on Monday... "I am just the driver". The crate weighs 930lbs and we are required to remove it from the truck so this is not a "Heyyy, I am just going to drop this off for you" situation. If we tell him to come back Monday, how will Mutt and Ali G handle the door? So we decide to suck it up and rush to meet the driver. It took some time to figure out how to get it unloaded last second (in a completely smashed crate of course). Thankfully our friend was home and able to help. That made three of us with the skid steer to do the real heavy lifting. The VERY smashed crate made it a head scratcher. If the crate was a car, it would be the one parked with the bumper falling off and when you open the door it just falls on the ground.
We got the crate off only because our friend had a bunch of tie down ratchet straps for a car trailer. They were a big bandaid that held the sad crate together while it was lifted off.
Lucky for us, as incompetent as Mutt and Ali G are, they managed to smash only the crates of all of them. This is mostly due to the amount of padding the companies used to pack the crates. The Panoramic one was the closest call to being ruined. They skewered that one with the forks and somehow the door was fine. It juuuuusst missed! A 1/4" higher or lower and the tracks on the glass door would have been damaged. If they had gone further in with the forks the glass would have broken. It's a wonder that these freight companies stay in business with the losses they must have!
Now that I am done ranting about shipping companies here is some install photos of the two windows we put in.
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