An important part of our race to get the house enclosed before winter arrives has been getting all the windows in place. We had ordered all new windows for the new second story and a few extras for the first floor.
But first….
We had finally gotten to the point where we were fed up with climbing up and down the ladder(s) dozens of times each day, so we bit the bullet, did the math (well, Kevin bit the bullet and did the math while Sue watched and took a few pictures) and built the base for the new staircase. In fact, the need for a stairway was also partly inspired by the fact that the windows would be coming soon and someone would need to schlep them to the second story. That would not be fun on a ladder. Getting the rise and run exactly right so that all the steps would be the same–and they would start and end where we wanted them to–was sort of a math story problem nightmare, but Kevin was up to the task. And the stair skirts he constructed really looked like the makings of giant Charlie Brown shirts, but having an actual staircase was a milestone. It was a turning point in the gutted structure beginning to take the shape of a house.
Like many other projects in this adventure, starting one project reveals the need to start a different, new project which has to be completed before the original project can continue. So of course constructing the stairway in this new location meant that a large window in the front of the house had to be moved and replaced with a smaller window, because a staircase cannot lead into a window. We realized that this window would fit nicely in the back of the living room where there had been a much smaller window that didn’t match the other windows in that room anyway.
When we removed the living room drywall to make room for the larger window, we found there was already a header in that space that was exactly the right size (but way too large for the window that had been there). Go figure, but…perfect. Not all surprises are bad ones. The smaller window we removed was nicer than an old window that was in the back hallway, so Kevin re-framed that space and just moved it down there.
Now to place the window from the front of the house in its new home in the back of the house…
…with a little muscle from our helper William and some supervision by our friend Mary Vilim.
Now back to the front of the house where there was now a gaping hole where the larger window had been. This presented a challenge because the front of the house is stonework. Fortunately, the same type of stones had been mounted to the wall between the two windows inside the garage. Why? Who knows, but it was a great thing because Kevin—the former union tile worker–was able to use them to expertly fill in the space where the larger window had been. He didn’t do it all at once, mind you. Like so many projects, it was done a bit here and a bit there–as time and inspiration allowed. Though it still needs to be grouted, you would never know the additional rocks were patched in.
First the mudding….
And then the rocks…
So now the front window matches the other new windows on the new side of the house, which–by the way–did not come in the size we were expecting, so Kevin had to spend a lonely day modifying all the window openings that we had so carefully prepared. Such is our life these days.
Reuse / Repurpose
Most of the old windows in the house, especially upstairs, were in terrible shape. However, the bedroom on the side we tore out had a fairly nice, newer window. So, we had saved it–and eventually we used it at the other end of the house in the bedroom that we are not remodeling. So even though that room will retain its funky décor, it has a decent window. This is in keeping with our attempts to reuse/repurpose whatever we can.
Picture Perfect
The original center of the house—sort of an A-frame cabin, had a loft that went to the back of the house where there were two double hung windows. Our new design has just a bridge connecting the two sides of the second floor, which left those two windows just hanging up there. We were going to replace them with our nice new windows—same as the rest of upstairs windows–but we hesitated because it seemed rather odd to have double-hung windows in a space that no one could reach (without a ladder) to open or close them.
Meanwhile, there were two large pieces of glass covered in dirt leaning up against the concrete block wall behind the house, left by the previous owners. (Stick with us here.) Sue thought they were junk and wanted to toss them in the dumpster, but Kevin recognized that they were nice pieces of glass under all the dirt and had taken them down to the barn to use in some future to-be-determined project. They didn’t even look to be the same size, so we couldn’t imagine (yet) what to do with them.
Then one day, Kevin said, “Wait a minute….” (Remember the curious fact that there was a large header where there had a been a small window in the living room?) “I’ll bet there was once a sliding glass door there…And that’s where those pieces of glass came from!” So we retrieved them from the side of the barn, laid them flat on sawhorses, removed the trim around them, and started cleaning them off. Lo and behold, they cleaned up beautifully and yes, they were thermal pane glass and they were the same size! Kevin’s eyes lit up. “I could frame these and put them up on the back of the house as picture windows!” Just eyeing the space, it looked like there might be enough room—but maybe not. Kevin set up our new scaffolding and climbed up to take detailed measurements. Finally he determined there was exactly enough room with not even ¼” to spare. Yet another trip to the hardware store for treated lumber, marine and auto weather seal strip, and silicone.
It was very similar to making a giant picture frame. First Kevin fashioned notches in the wood so the corners would fit snugly. Then–using a dado blade–he made grooves in the boards, laid the weather stripping in them, screwed two of the boards together to form an L, placed two sides of the glass in the grooves, then placed the other two L-shaped boards over it, and screwed them in place. Voila! Giant windows! Thanks to help from a couple of big strapping neighbors, Terry and Rod, the windows were hoisted and shimmed into place. Another great use of materials on hand!
Unfortunately, our elation was dampened a bit when we realized that in fact the seal on one of the windows had been broken, causing that window to be cloudy–a condition we can’t accept. So, we put out an APB for someone getting rid of an old sliding glass door. Initially we had a Craigslist lead on a door in a town about an hour away, but after hooking up our trailer and hauling it all the way there to pick it up, we found that the glass was tinted. Ugh! Why didn’t they mention that in the ad? Oh well. Back home with an empty trailer.
Meanwhile along with the order for all our new windows, we had ordered a sliding glass door for the back of the kitchen. When the guys from the lumber company came to deliver it, we mentioned our dilemma with the cloudy window and our hope of finding a discarded sliding glass door with at least one clear pane of thermal glass . They said they would keep an eye out. A couple weeks later we got a call: Someone had thrown an old sliding glass door in the lumber company’s dumpster. Bingo! We’ll take it! Bringing down the cloudy window, re-framing the new piece of glass, and getting it back up there and in place will be a big job, but we know we’re going to be glad we did it.
Already we are loving all the light. There are big pine trees all along the back of the house, so even in winter we’ll have a colorful view out those windows. Let the sun shine in!
Colbert Repair 
All those skills learne picture framing over the years are coming in very handy here ..
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