A company worth knowing about: Jeld-Wen

Included in our massive updates on our house was a new front door (see my blog post of January 2011). Jeld-Wen won our hearts with, what we perceived as, the nicest looking entry door, for the money. It had a beveled glass insert, and the matching glass sidelight. We ordered it painted brown, and had it installed. It was, and still is, gorgeous!

Then sadness entered. It seemed like the glass insert was slipping down exposing the original flat white color of the door. We thought we had just missed seeing it and touched it up with a bit of paint. But it continued to slip. I took a few pictures, and contacted Jeld-Wen to see if anything could be done.

This is where the story gets good. They sent a guy (Mark Hammond) out who actually lives north of Dayton, probably a good hour drive to our house. He surveyed the damage, and found the same problem was happening with the sidelight (we didn’t even notice that, as we usually come in through our garage). The company determined that all the glass inserts were to be replaced. They proceeded to do that; sending the same guy, an hour away, to take care of the problem.

While he was replacing the sidelight, he accidentally damaged our newly installed siding on the house (did I mention massive updates to our house?). I was instructed to get it fixed and send them the bill. Once the siding was fixed, I waited and waited for the bill. Meanwhile, Jeld-Wen (Creighton Roethler) contacted me via email and phone calls asking for this bill to reimburse me. He must have contacted me no less than 10 times.

Now, just to recap;  they fixed my door and sidelight  - over a year and half after it was installed! Then they hounded me for a repair bill they insisted on paying!

I do not usually write glowing reviews about a company (usually because not many companies glow), but this one is certainly exceptional! I feel the world needs to know (ah, if only the world read my blog!) that there are still companies out there with integrity, and Jeld-Wen is right up there. Needless to say, I highly recommend them if you are looking to replace a door anytime soon.

Thank you Jeld-Wen for being an awesome company!

Yep, new car. Yep, all ours! Yep, we get to smell that “new car smell” as much as we want.

Someone could make a fortune making that “new car” scent and putting it on a Christmas tree to hang from your rear view mirror. Maybe it could look like a car instead of a Christmas tree though. But I digress….sorry.

Buying a car is a pretty daunting experience, and we already knew we wanted another Camry! But there is the LE, and a XLE, and a SE, and that isn’t even considering the Camry hybrid!

This is the lucky number 7, yes the 7th Toyota for me! They weren’t all Camry’s though. I had an incredible MR2 (a story in itself), three Celica’s and two other Camry’s. My first Toyota was a 1979. Yea I know, showing my age now.

Back to today’s Camry story. We ruled out the XLE, didn’t need all those bells and whistles and higher price. And didn’t consider the SE, as it is a sports edition and was a bit pricier too. So that left the LE model. This was fine with us after all it is a Camry. We got to thinking about the hybrid (trying to do our part for being ‘green’), and actually drove one. But were not as impressed as all the reviews said we would be.

Then we looked again at the SE. It is so pretty, especially in Barcelona Red! We got it at the price of an LE, so we were sold. It has some pretty neat bells and whistles that I won’t bore you with here.

But here is the best part, I saved it for last!! Working our Dave Ramsey program (everyone should go through this program!) we were able to pay cash for this 2012 Camry!!! I still can’t believe it, even though I know it is true.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Isn’t God good?

Who's place is this anyway?

Before

After











Did we have a dated house or what? What do you expect from something that is 61 years old? (Hey wait….) Awning, aluminum siding, fake stone, and the white…yuck. We made so many improvements on the inside, including replacing all the windows, this just had to be done.

It was an amazing journey (thank you Estee Lauder). The original siding was a wooden type siding. not sure how many times it had been painted. Then the aluminum, and fake stone, went over that. We had taken a window out on the side of the house, and a removed the original front door….see it just had to be done.

Now it looks 100% better, just a little bare. Oh what to do landscaping and/or porch wise. We are always open to thoughts (hint…hint).

What did “i” do with my husband?

It started out innocently enough….an iPod for music. I mean after all, he is a sound guy with a musician’s heart. I am guilty of this one. Who knew what it would lead to?

Then it progressed to a Mac from work. To stay compatible with his team, he says.

Next came the iPad. What can I say, a graduation gift. Yep, me again!

Oh, and I can’t leave out the audio book of Steve Jobs biography, on 20 CD’s. Yea, on sale at Costco. It was actually a good story to hear.

The latest came this week...the iPhone. We had to, it was time to upgrade!

What else is out there?

I love my husband dearly, but he has been drinking too much of the Kool-Aid. What can I say, we are a house divided. Michigan and Ohio. Reds and Tigers. Red Wings and Cyclones? This list goes on.

I still love ya honey with all I got!!!

How and why I spent my birthday money

Because of my generous husband's birthday gift to me, and my lack of "neediness" for gadgets and toys, I had a hard time spending the huge gift certificate he gave me.  I waited for the "new" iPad to be released and started shopping for a tablet. The iPad had nothing compelling to me to justify the cost.

So I started my comparison between the Toshiba Thrive and the iPad2, especially since the price of those two units were comparable, since the new release of the iPad. Here were the pros and cons as they applied to me, and why I made the decision I did.

Pros

• SD card port (I take pictures and like this easy download option, not available on iPad2. I don’t have to plug in my camera and run that battery down too while downloading. I can pop out my SD card and plug it into the Thrive.)
• USB port (none available on iPad2)
• Bigger screen (10.1 vs 9.7)
• More RAM (1G vs 512MB)
• Flash (not available on iPad2)
• Google Navigation (not available on iPad2..free)
• My familiarity with Android OS (I've been using a Droid X phone for 2 years)
• Widgets, I love my widgets (no such thing on an iPad)
• My lack of convention (because everyone else has an iPad..sorry, not drinking to Kool Aid)
• HDMI and mini SD ports (not available on iPad2)

Cons

• Bulk (.62 pounds vs .34 pounds)

I played with one at Best Buy, and I like the feel of the back of the Thrive. It does not have a smooth back, and just feels like it would not slip out of your hands. The response time of the execution of the apps were virtually the same on both units.

So there ya have it....why I bought a Toshiba Thrive. Now I can't wait for it to get here....2 more days!!!

Thank you my most wonderful husband!

Happy 60th to me!

Birthdays are all about attitude. I didn’t realize mine would be so good (pat on back now). I truly see this one as entering the decade of ‘RETIREMENT’…and yea, yay for that!!! Just the thought of that makes me happy.

I do have to say that the ‘celebration’ this time was much more that I have experienced, probably since childhood. It was like a birthday week. I really do not like attention, and my preference is to treat it as just another day. And I am so blessed to have a husband that views birthdays in much the same way. However, this year my husband was replaced by someone who broke all our ‘spoken’ birthday celebration rules. (Who is this guy, and where is my Ed?)

This year was marked with an onslaught of birthday cards, and Facebook wishes, the likes that I have never received before (thank you little seestor), a half dozen balloons, a cookie bouquet, a pot of tulips, bouquet of roses, bouquet of cut flowers, two family sized bags of Twizzlers, an entire pan of homemade Rice Krispy treats, a 760 piece bag of Tootsie Rolls, a t-shirt, feather boa, and tricked out cubeland space. There were energy drinks, Starbucks bucks, my very own homemade pan of brownies (that were all edges and corners), lunch with my team from work, and a super night out with my small group.

Remember the ‘broke the birthday rules’ man I mentioned above? He outdid himself with a gift that was a way too much dollar amount gift certificate to B&H. (If you don’t know what B&H is, that makes me feel more geeky…it is a electronics/photography online store) So I still have birthday gifts coming, once I decide what to buy.

All that to say, that I feel truly blessed and loved by everyone. I am the luckiest woman on the planet, I have the best God, family and friends with me always and forever. Thank you everyone.