GLAZED OVER

First off, i'd like to say that both Carrie and I are sad that we don't (and mostly SHE doesn't) blog as much anymore. We going to try to do better to keep people informed.

This past week... exactly a week ago, in fact, my Dad and I began working on the windows at our house. I had become annoyed with the prices I was getting for quotes from window companies and decided to order them from Lowe's myself. I was able to get 10 Pella vinyl windows for about 40% of the price. And they are all Low-E, double hung, double lock, etc... So I was pretty happy.

2 weeks ago they came in (the Lowe's robot called me) and Dad and I got started. I had ordered obscured-vis for the bathroom so I decided that we'd do that one first. The window came out pretty easily - pretty much what we expected and very similar to the old basement windows that I installed. We just cut through the old aluminum frames and ripped the whole thing out.

After we did that, we were able to clean up the wood, old glazing and aluminum with lots of scraping and cutting and then vacuuming the entire thing. What we discovered at this point was that my measurements were going to be slightly off - the existing wooden frames were slightly narrower than I'd anticipated and the dimension was hidden inside the old aluminum frame which was offset. That was kind of a bummer but there was nothing that could have really been done about it. So Dad headed to Contractor's Tool & Supply to purchase a Bosch pocket router which is a tool he'd been wanting anyway (I suspect he had fun playing with it and getting to use a new tool so much.) This was a godsend because it had a rail on it and allowed us (him) to go around the frame and rip a smooth section out on all sides. The first window was a bit of experimentation and work but we got it in by evening and I caulked it up and repaired all of the inside woodwork.

The next day we started bright and early and ripped through the windows all day, after a brief morning trip to Lowe's to get a bunch of caulk, and a few other supplies. By the loss of daylight Wednesday evening we all but the picture window installed which was really nice. Things went much smoother with our new method. Carrie took some shots of Dad and I working together.

I spent the following day getting lots of batt insulation stuffed into all of the sides followed by a nice tube backer rod for the caulk. The windows sat like that for a few days through the holiday and then Ron and Dad came in Sunday morning to help with the large picture window. After and hour or so we got that bad-boy out of there with only one small corner break. It was seriously glazed into the old frame. We then did the usual routing and cleaning and got it all screwed in. The rest of the day I spent doing lots of caulking inside and out and by nighttime I had everything sealed up. All that remains now is to get the inside touch up painting done and then I will probably repaint the white aluminum outside in the Spring (unless we get another warm spell.)

Things look so much better on the house and I know Carrie and I will love not having to do storm windows anymore, not having to put up plastic and (hopefully) not having condensation and frost all over our windows. I'm sure it will cut down on energy costs too and they look a million times better. Also, the double hung allows us to wash the windows from inside so i'm sure they'll be much cleaner a lot more often.

Lastly, I want to say how much fun it was working with my Dad. The time I got to spend with him I wouldn't trade for anything. Even though it was a couple days of hard work it didn't seem like it at all. It was mostly just fun. It's something that I wish I could do every day. Thanks Dad.