Work began about 10:00 am. To try to help things go smoothly I briefly met with the installation supervisor in my kitchen to go over my concerns and basic information:
Then I busied myself with yardwork.
Within an hour or so I glanced up to see the state of the work. I was a bit confused in seeing exterior trim in place around a window opening where a new window had been set in place. I inquired about the trim and was told it would be “wrapped”. That made no sense to me and I was still confused, but because I am not a window installation expert I assumed that I just didn’t understand the process and the trim would be replaced later.
After the workers left that afternoon I took a look at the eight windows that had been replaced. This is what I saw when I examined the corners from inside the house:
Moving from the center to edge of each window, you see (a) glass, (b) the new window sash and frame, (c) yellow spray foam, (d) boards with a rabbet joint, (e) drywall with joint compound. What are these boards with a rabbet joint?
I also looked at the outside.
At that point my confusion shifted to alarm. At 4:27 pm I called the Pella salesperson, my one contact at the company, and said that I don’t think enough is being removed for a full frame replacement. He said he would come over the next morning.
I barely slept that night. Eight old windows had already been removed and replaced, and the rest of the new windows were on my back porch. To spend so much money and have something go so terribly wrong made me absolutely nauseous.
I assumed that in the morning once the salesperson arrived and he realized that the full-frame installation was somehow switched to inserts we would have a conversation about what to do. Even if I was offered a discount to continue with the insert-style replacement, I was not going to take it. The only solution I saw was to patch up the new windows and window openings such that the project could be put on hold for a couple months, order windows of the correct size, then continue with a proper full frame replacement installation once the windows of the correct size arrived.