New Windows and the Afganka

It's getting crazy around here. In addition to it being two days before the First Day of School, we are installing five new windows today. And it's raining. Ok, it's really only a spittle, but it's rained only ONCE in two months until today.

And the Afganka have arrived. These are dusty winds that blow, I'm assuming, northwards from Afghanistan. The air is hazy with a sandy dust and there's certainly more wind than normal. Maybe it's a good thing it's raining on the day of the Afganka to help settle the dust before it invades our home. I chose to believe this. Because the other option is cleaning dust off of everything we own because we have five gaping holes in our house where the windows used to be.

The window company sent two "masters" to take the old windows out, take the bars off the windows, install the new windows and replace the bars. I've been assured countless times by my husband and another "master" that they can do this within one day.

We love the house we rent. Don't get me wrong. It has beautiful outdoor space with lots of green grass which is a rarity in Dushanbe. We have over twenty fruit trees. Over twenty rose bushes. But we also have eleven horrible windows. And when I write horrible, I mean, all kinds of horrible.

Yes, those are nails holding the panes of glass in place. Nails. There are smatterings of caulk, but nothing remotely close to efficient!

And considering that it will be unlikely that we'll have street gas to fuel the furnace as well as electricity this winter, we are doing our best to seal the house.

Yes, that's a crack in the girls' bedroom window. Probably from nailing the nails into the frame!

Here are the windows to be installed.

And the rooms that are cleared.

I'm begging for a boat load of patience right about now.