I sold that job today, got a down payment and am off to the races. Only it’s not a race, actually. But time is of the essence.
But it wasn’t an easy sell. I started working on getting this project months ago. I’d visited the jobsite, drawn a map, shared some preliminary numbers, had the client to the shop, messaged back and forth on social media, text messages, emails….
But don’t think that this is some technique or something. It’s actually who I am. My goal all along is to save her windows, however it happens. I am willing to train them. I am willing to train people they bring in. I am willing to the work myself. I know there isn’t enough of me to go around. I give what I can.
But my foot is now only in the door. They have 31 windows to do. They gave me 5. I gladly took them. Now my job is to do such a good job that they can’t imagine having any other windows than mine.
These are windows that were born with the house. They match perfectly. They’re beautiful. They just need love, and lots of it. Over time, deferred maintenance has taken it’s toll, but they are still the right windows for the house, no matter what a slick corporate window salesperson says.
Restoration is grandfathered in. They aren’t required to change them out, although the pressure to do so can be fierce. Part of that pressure is not being able to find anyone to do the work. Fortunately they found me. The unfortunate part is that while I am doing this work for this client, two blocks over, the corporate window giants are roping someone into a planned obsolescence debt cycle that feeds welfare for the corporations – all because I can’t get there in time.
Ripping the windows out of a 1920s era house and putting in replacements is like cutting off your perfectly good legs so you can get prosthetics. Sure. Those legs might be out of shape and need some love – but they came with your body – they just might need a little work to get back into shape.
So that’s what I a going to do – give these windows the work they need to get back into shape so they can best serve the body they came with. To me, that’s a good use of the resources we already have, as well as invests in people.
