Brads Blog

Last night, I went to a party with Andrew. There were other kids there, but Andrew hadn’t warmed up to them yet and wanted me to play with him in the sandbox.

Last night we went to the Potter’s House for Andrews graduation ceremony. All the kids sang great songs, they were all adorable. We were very proud of Andrew for being so brave. He sang and participated, and walked to stage during the graduation ceremony.

Here is some footage of the ceremony

2/3/07
First of all, this review is based on my own personal opinion and was not solicited by anyone. I received no compensation from Gilkey or any other entity.

For a couple of years now, I have known that our windows were seriously in need of an upgrade. We have been dealing with our standard aluminum framed, double pane windows since we purchased this house nearly six years ago. This has been an expense I have put off time and time again.

This year, it finally came to a head and we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with it. Who to choose?

Last year, we invited a rep from Airtite Windows into our home, only to get hammered with high pressure sales tactics, that resulted in broken promises and no new windows. This year, at the recommendation of my parents I decided to give Gilkey Windows a shot. I went the the website and requested an appointment.

The next day, we were called and an appointment was set up for today with Brian Schamel (Highly recommended for southwest Ohio 1-800-878-7771). He is the same guy that sold windows to my parents, as well as my Aunt and Uncle. Brian came as scheduled and showed us about Gilkey’s windows, and was very friendly and professional. He was not overbearing and seemed to truly have our needs in mind. We were impressed enough that we decided to also have him quote us for a back patio door, as well as a new front entry door system.

After two hours, we had ironed out all details of our purchase. We settled on a total of 11 new windows, a sliding patio door, and a front entry system (A steel door with the side window, and all the fixin’s). Total purchase price – about $9200. This price is well below retail, and well below what any kind of discount a coupon could give. This was “cut to the chase” sales and I like it. We financed a portion of this easy enough and we were told that they would be coming back out to take precision measurements, and that our new home upgrades will be ready for installation in 4-6 weeks. The front door may take a little bit longer because the factory is not local.

2/17/07
We were called this week to schedule the guy to come out and take accurate measurements of our existing windows and doors. The appointment was scheduled for the following day, but we had a major snow storm come through. Nobody showed up to take measurements nor were we called. However, we did get a call the following day and rescheduled the visit for Monday, February 19th.

5/14/07
With every major purchase in my life, there is always at least one thing that keeps everything from going perfectly. In this case, it has been the long delay in actually having the windows and doors installed. 6-8 weeks has turned into a matter of months, not weeks. Fortunately, the windows will be installed this Thursday (May 18th).

We are very excited, the house needs a face lift badly. I am dreading the fact that I will be taking down all of our blinds and curtains, including the mounting hardware. All this only to re-install everything later in the week.

Here are some images of our existing windows. I took the pictures this winter. Click on images to make them larger.

5/21/07
The day the windows were installed, I didn’t have to leave for work until 2pm. I normally sleep in a little bit on days I go in late. Today, my wife woke me up at 7:30am “The window people are here!”. They were right on time. I threw some clothes on and met the window installers.

The first crew to arrive were there to install my Gilkey front entry system. There were two of them. The other guys that showed shortly thereafter were to install the windows, and the patio sliding glass door.

Both crews were very friendly, and professional. My three year old son made a friend of one of them, and followed him around from room to room with his plastic tools asking him lots of questions.

By the time I left for work, all windows were installed and trim finished. The front door was also hung and very nice looking. Several days later, the only imperfection I can tell is where my son stuck his fingers in some caulk after the installers left.

I am confident that we made a good decision by choosing Gilkey. Only time will tell if the product is what they claim, but so far I am impressed.

2/18/2009
Two years has gone by since we made our purchase, and I am still very happy with my windows and doors. However I thought I’d post about my recent experience with Gilkey Service Department.

A few weeks ago, the locking mechanism on our new patio door broke. I called the service department, and made an appointment. When the service man came out, not only did he replace the lock on the patio door but he also made some adjustments on the front entry door. Very fast work, and professional. Thanks!

Here are more pictures of the installation:

If you are serious about making a Gilkey purchase, and call Brian, please let him know about this site!

8/24/09
A couple of weeks ago, our dog saw a bird, or a rabbit in the back yard and decided he couldn’t wait to be let out. He plowed right through the screen door and ripped the screen mesh out. I called Gilkey service, and they said to bring it in to the show room and they would replace it free of charge.

I took the screen to the showroom, dropped it off (took about three minutes) and a couple days later they called and it was ready.

After a few years since my Gilkey purchase, I am still pleased.

I know it’s been some time since my last post, things have been busy here. Actually, I’ve been more burned out then busy, but that’s just how it is I guess. My burn out has resulted in most of my websites wilting on the vine, but I really can’t seem to care. I am pondering selling off a lot of the more valuable ones.

As the title reads, I’m back to work at AK Steel. The lockout is over, and nearly everyone is back to work. Last week I was asked if I would be willing to be a union delegate, and I accepted. A delegate in my department will represent about 50-60 people, I hope I don’t screw it up too bad.

My actual job hasn’t changed all that much. I’m still doing the things I enjoy doing, and the managers I work around seem to be happy that we’re back.

Well, for those who know me personally, I have decided to answer the call and update you on what’s going on in my world. First of all, the AK Steel lockout is entering it’s 11′th month. I am technically still employed there, but have all but lost hope in returning there. I have learned a lot about unions, how they work, and how the union principles have deteriorated over the last several decades. I still man the picket line, and watch as disgust as other unions cross our picket lines and do our jobs. What is just as disgusting is the fact that the media doesn’t think it’s worthy of a story.

Since the lockout, I have found other employment. The hourly wage is actually better, but by the time you calculate bonuses and benefits, and the piss poor retirement plan they offer, it is hard to imagine I will continue to work there for very long.

I am seriously considering a career change. I have recently started promoting my webmaster service, and continue to seek clients but I seriously doubt that this will enable me to quit altogether and venture on my own and make it financially. I must leave the option of retraining open. I am exploring the idea of enrolling in a local college for wed development/design. I would rather work in this field for less than deal with the crap I deal with on a daily basis otherwise. Web design is what I enjoy doing.

I have also decided to refocus my web empire. I am trying to consolidate my sites, and spend more time on a fewer sites, thus allowing more time off line to get things done, including spend time with the family.

As part of my online refocusing, this blog will be updated more frequently. I will be posting personal items on here. I find that writing posts such as these are therapeutic for me.

OK, so that’s enough for now.

With the new year comes re-hashed resolutions. Most people have pretty much the same resolutions every year, you know, lose weight, pay off debt, etc.

My resolutions include losing weight, as I have swollen up roughly 15-20 pounds this year. I blame stress in the workplace and overall lack of will power for this. I would like to at least lose the extra baggage I picked up last year.

Another one of my resolutions is to increase profits from my web empire I am building. I currently own 35 websites, and made a decent wage from them last year. However, due to some things beyond my control I don’t expect to do as well this year as I did last, but I will certainly try!

Well, I know many of the once – loyal readers of Bradsblog have become frustrated with me not posting. I’ve been pouring a tremendous amount of time working on my other sites. I really don’t want to post about all that stuff on this blog, so I’ll be posting about my internet experiences over on Flukeit.

I hope to see you there!

I blogged about it before, how my Blog Directory had links waiting for approval, and they were piling up pretty good. Well, when the number of links went to over 800 I had to do something about it.

I bit the bullet, spent the money and upgraded the script so that I can do mass approvals or deletes.

I had some issues with my template, and had to redo it altogether but otherwise didn’t have too many problems and as of right now, I have no links waiting for approval!

It took me several hours to go through, but I’m finally caught up!

Yvonne Said:

Where you at, Brad?

Well, I guess I can say I’ve been a litte bit busy. I took on a new role at work, and with that I haven’t been able to get online as much anymore. (at least it pays more)

So that leaves me to do all my internet business at home. I really enjoy the blog, but my big time consumer is my forums I run. Things have really taken off there, and I have spent the last week or so making substantial upgrades and modifications.

I apologize if I haven’t made any good posts lately, I think I’ll just have to make time for it.

I used to go to Foxnews.com to get all the latest news, and today I went there to read more of the Story of Thailand’s Coupe. I landed at a site that appeared to be a splog pretending to be FoxNews.com.

What has this site become? Do they not make enough money on their cable news programs they have to resort to “ad-ding” up their site?

If this was a less reputable site, it would be ridiculed for having so many ads on it.