Remodeling - Windows (part II)

Progress has been made.  Project is more or less done.  Now i'm trying to piece my house and life back together.  With this comes pictures!  It's looking fantastic right now.  The fumes from the stain are gone and i'm no longer getting high!  I'm not sure if i'm going to post pics of the rest of the windows with their blinds on or even the glass block in the basement or not.  I know i would love to get nicer wood blinds but not sure when that'll happen.  These were significantly cheaper than the roughly $180 per wood ones i was looking at.  The wood ones look fantastic buuuuuut this project has cost me enough already.

Slowly but surely i'm also replacing outlets which are in bad shape while my house is in disarray.  As i piece stuff back together i'm also cleaning the shit out of it all to get rid of the dust and also because i've not been awesome about cleaning the past couple years (or ever).  Doubt i'll ever post pics of when things are 100% done because they'll honestly never be done!

Through all of this, the work has been done in a reasonable amount of time and wasn't as big of a nightmare as it could have been for me.  Considering what got done, things stayed pretty clean which is remarkable.

This is the window facing onto my enclosed front porch facing west.  This would be the south west corner of the house.  This will be one of the main windows giving me fresh air during summer as i geek out on my computer in the corner.  The white is mud from where they're patching the damage to the plaster.  It'll look better when i finally paint this summer.

This is my upstairs window facing south.  The walls look muuuuuch better than they really are.  Some nasty ass wood paneling on them from god knows when.  This window was completely shot originally.  This is also the one that gets hit with the most sun year round.  Really need to get some blinds up there so the neighbors don't think i'm creepier than i already am.

Here you will see two windows that face onto the front porch.  The TV is normally in front of them and these windows have never been usable for airflow for me.  They've always been drafty.  The heat thermostat is about another 2 feet away from the edge of the picture.  Always the draftiest room in the house.

My bedroom downstairs window is the one that had the most plaster damage around it.  Very impressed with how it came out.  Coincidentally, the white from the patching makes it look like i've got some kind of cloud theme going in my room which i very much do not!








Finally here's that same window after i got the blinds put on.  These were a different style of blinds which i've never used before.  The instructions said to use a 1/16" drill bit.  Wrong!  Ruined one of the screw heads in the process.  Wound up going through 5 bits before settling on a 1/8" bit.  This took me 45 minutes to get the blinds in this window!  It had to get easier than this otherwise i was going to cry!!!  These blinds enable me to now have some privacy in my bedroom and blocks out the damned alley light!

The south window downstairs is another window that always gets hammered by the elements.  I had replaced it with a chap vinyl window a couple of years ago as a band aid.  As you can see there was some mild plaster damage from the work around the window but nothing too bad.  It's going to be fantastic once I get around to painting.  I like this pic the most because it shows how well the stained oak matches the original pine.  I accidentally matched them up almost perfectly!

Here is what it looks like afterwards with some blinds on.  Only took me 10 minutes (a far cry from 45 min before) to hang these while stopping long enough to mix myself a drink.  Yay for privacy!!!

Remodeling - Windows (in progress)

A virtual tour of some of the work being done at my house this week.  I'm having the original windows (metal counterweights and all) replaced with energy efficient ones.  With the house being almost 100, this project is also doing a bit of damage which will be repaired once all is said and done.  The wood work was not salvageable and so the trim around the windows is going to be replaced.  Here's what i came home to the other night...

Living room:

This is the window to the right of my front door.  It opens onto my enclosed front porch facing west.  You can see my computer desk which is normally in the corner.  This means no desktop computer at home in the interim. :(  At least i have my laptop to play with!

 This is the other window in that room which faces south.  Prior to this project, this was the only window that had a screen on it and was usable for air flow during summer.  If my computer desk were in the corner again, this would be to my left and i could easily see the damn bunnies in my side garden!

These windows are to the left of my front door and face out onto my enclosed porch (west again).  It's in this area that I consistently felt a chill during winter months.  Again, these windows no longer had functional screens so they were closed year round.  Needless to say, the airflow will be nice this summer!



Mess in living room:

You can see my new love seat stacked on top of my new couch to make room for the work.  Also got my coffee table covered in more crap than usual right there.  Yeah.  It's a mess.

Here's my computer desk pulled out with Smokey inspecting the work.  No sense in moving this bulky thing back into place until it's all done.  I've got a bunch of cords that need to be re-plugged when it's done.  Having the 2 windows right there by my desk will be nice though.

Bedroom:

My bedroom on the first floor faces east towards the alley.  Not having any blinds up right now means the neighbors get a free peep show if i'm not careful!  You can see how much of the plaster came off when they took the trim boards off.  That's the joys of an old house.  It'll be patched soon but was quite a heart breaker when i initially saw it.

Notice next to no mess on the floor that night?  Very impressive job cleaning up after doing work.  I would have endured a mess but nice to have courtesy like this.  :)

Cats helping:

Smokey decided he needed to sit on the arm of the couch as i was putting the love seat on top of it in preparation for this project.  You can't see the drool in this picture but it was there!

Shadow decided to investigate things as i was taking a break.  On the floor is a glass with my "beverage".  :)

2012-02-02

The presidential primaries are in full swing right now in the US.  The Republican party is tearing its self apart.  Newt vs Mit.  One is trying to be more red than the next.

I sit here reading the latest gossip about the campaigns.  You can call it something else but in the end it's the same as the gossip you read about Hollyweird people and your neighbors.

When did things get so polarized?  It's my way or the highway.  We want strong leaders and yet we want people able to compromise.