There was a time when I would spend 30-min a day making the rounds through Craigslist, Next Door, fb marketplace, Letgo, Offerup searching for anything that could be useful for my house. Among my finds: toilets, faucets, sinks, tile, wardrobes, towel racks, a granite countertop. But, this one day, I scored BIG. I was searching for “Sierra Pacific windows” because they make great windows and, hey, maybe someone has some reject window they can’t use that would fit. And there it was, on Craigslist: “Sierra Pacific Sliding Patio Doors, owner rejected, builder needs to move asap.” I scheduled a time to visit the home where the doors were delivered, conveniently located a few blocks from where I had a client meeting. I was thrilled, Graeme was incredulous. I arrived early, parked, and practically skipped up the sidewalk. The builder met me and shared that when the doors were delivered and put in place, the client realized they just weren’t big enough (!). He offered a 50% discount and said he could probably get his guys to deliver them when they brought the replacement doors to his site. I couldn’t believe it. I said I needed to confirm with my architect that the size would work. I quickly sent the specs to the architect, who confirmed they were THE EXACT SIZE of our rough openings that we had hoped to fill with sliding doors or windows. But, to be honest, I probably couldn’t have afforded to install operable doors like this, at this size, at full-price. But, at half-price, I would be able to install two sets, one for the Main House and the other for the Casita. Yes, thank you, I will take them. Too good to be true. But, it wasn’t! Some might call it a perfectly-sized, divine gift. The only tiny hitch was that our house was days, weeks, months away from being ready for a window install. And, so, I bought a tarp (also purchased on Craigslist) and made a plan for how and where we would store them. Oh, and I left out the part where I locked my keys in the car while chatting with the builder and had to walk to my client meeting and get bailed out by AAA. Yup, I was that excited.
Here they sat for a few months
We roped our friends into helping us rotate the patio doors a couple times so that the weight was evenly distributed across the wood. We lost a few hours of sleep over the year whenever there was a massive wind storm or heavy rain. But, the doors seemed to have held up OK. There’s a bit of discoloration on the interior wood, but nothing a little sanding and stain couldn’t fix.
considerafield 