Which translates to "Am I crazy?" in Chinese. One of my earliest design choices in this process was the decision to scrap our perfectly lovely, tres expensive, and in perfect condition, sliding wooden French patio doors. They've bothered me since day one. There's just something about sliding a single door and thus only being able to open up 1/2 of the space that is just so annoying. I decided that when I remodeled I was springing for a set of those super-coolio sliding folding patio doors. I knew that it was going to eat up a HUGE portion of our budget. For years I heard rumours of expecting to pay around 10K for a 10' door! Ah! Apparently the rumor mills don't know what a bargain hunter I can be.
So after scouring the Internet and finding that most local vendors wanted about 6K for these doors I turned to --- where else? China! And after about 75 emails back and forth with about 1000 questions (honestly the woman had the patience of a saint!), I placed my order. Am I nervous? Uh...yes. But I look at this way -- if the doors aren't right, or they're crappy or whatever, I'll sell 'em on Craigslist and I've still only paid a fraction of what it would have cost to purchase them here in the USA. So I ordered a 10' patio door, a set of double French doors for the master bedroom, and 2 single French doors for the new addition, and the new office - all aluminum in black. Total cost should be less than 5K for all --- and that includes all of the expenses for duties, tariffs and customs broker. The funniest part is that I was being quoted 7-10 weeks lead time from the USA and they're going to be shipping in 21 days!
Fingers crossed! Bargain hunters unite and claim victory! Disclaimer: sorry all of you "Buy American" types out there. Apparently I don't have the budget to buy American.
So after scouring the Internet and finding that most local vendors wanted about 6K for these doors I turned to --- where else? China! And after about 75 emails back and forth with about 1000 questions (honestly the woman had the patience of a saint!), I placed my order. Am I nervous? Uh...yes. But I look at this way -- if the doors aren't right, or they're crappy or whatever, I'll sell 'em on Craigslist and I've still only paid a fraction of what it would have cost to purchase them here in the USA. So I ordered a 10' patio door, a set of double French doors for the master bedroom, and 2 single French doors for the new addition, and the new office - all aluminum in black. Total cost should be less than 5K for all --- and that includes all of the expenses for duties, tariffs and customs broker. The funniest part is that I was being quoted 7-10 weeks lead time from the USA and they're going to be shipping in 21 days!
Fingers crossed! Bargain hunters unite and claim victory! Disclaimer: sorry all of you "Buy American" types out there. Apparently I don't have the budget to buy American.
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