Grey Area

work hard - retire youg

this week at my house i completed four things that have been on my list for quite some time. here's the laundry list:

- installed 4 windows.

this was really hard. taking out the old windows is really easy. it only takes about 5 minutes. after that, i have to use my saws-all to trim out the flanges from the old window frame because the new windows are all slightly larger than the openings (grrrrrr). they are made out of aluminum, so a lot of metal shards go flying at you while you're cutting. then i have to do a test fit for the new window which weighs between 75 and 200 pounds. most of the time, it still didn't fit. i had to go back and trim some more, then test fit the new window again. if it then fit in the hole, i had to remove it, caulk the flanges, and then place it in the opening. once it is seated, i had to run inside and drill and screw the frame to the house to hold it securely. then i can go back outside and caulk around the entire window to prevent the elements from getting in.

in one case, i had to remove and replace the plywood on the front of the house dues to dry rot and a really bad leak we were having due to bad building. the roof would shed water right onto the old window frame and it would com into the house every time it rained really hard. unfortunately, it came into the only room with a wood floor - the salon. water + wood = warpage. a lot of extra work went into that window. new roofing paper (for a moisture barrier), new plywood, new flashing and lots of caulk. i actually had to rip out the entire old window frame there, which was much easier than trimming it with the saws-all.

- trimmed the interior of the windows with solid pine molding.

this was longs hours, but not too hard to do. i spent $330 on wood to do this. the idea here is twofold - to make it look like the new windows are really part of the interior space, and secondly, to seal the gaps between the new window and the old frame. it's really amazing to see how much just framing the windows adds to the final look of the house.

i made a huge mountain of sawdust under the table saw; ripping, crosscutting and beveling boards into exact fitting trim for the windows. it turned out really nice.

- hung blinds and shades in the windows.

not too hard, but they all had to be trimmed down to fit the new width of the openings. again, they really add to the final look of interior.

- cleaned up the side yard junk pile.

major nasty over there. first off, we have never cleaned that area out since we have owned the house. there's wood that was leftover from the playhouse i built for the kids a couple of years ago, leaves, a chain (?), and the largest ant nest i've ever seen. i chopped all the old wood up, keeping the boards for firewood this winter and tossing the plywood pieces in the trash. i killed hundreds of thousands of ants (not kidding) and swept and shoveled all the crap out of there. it was just a lot of grungy, dirty work.

overall, i feel like i accomplished a good amount. now i can get back to working on the kitchen. homeownership. bah.

posted by Evan @ 9:35 AM