New Bedroom Windows

Here we are this morning, with the old aluminum window taken out. Someone took out the centre of the frame to put in the aluminum one. So the first thing I had to do was remake some of the pieces. You can't see it in the picture, but it was really windy this morning. The door kept slamming...



Here's the frame primed with the new pieces I added back in. The sill is 9 degrees, so I had to match the angle, and rabbet it out. For some reason I measured the window wrong, it ends up that the old ones were 30 1/4" wide, instead of 30. I had to cut the stool a bit, and rabbet out 1/4" on the top, and 1/2" on the bottom. I used an old baseboard I had for the pieces.



Here are the windows in. They didn't take too long to put in, after everything was prepped. The jambs are vinyl, and there are clips that hold them in. The sashes pop in after you get the jambs in.




Here they are from the outside. I still have to do the trim for the middle. The original was 5/4" fir, the piece needs to be 7 1/2" wide. I was going to use cedar to get the full thickness, I may have to biscuit join 2 pieces to get the width. I still have to fix the sill, it has some rot, so it'll need epoxy.


Hopefully we'll get the living room side done next week, I'll be twice as many frame pieces to rebuild, since it has 3 windows. The windows are Marvin sash replacements, in douglas fir. We have to stain the outside with Sikkens, and the inside with Waterlox. Oh and I still haven't built those window planters...

Bathroom window surprise

We've got some new replacement sashes, to replace the aluminum windows that someone put in. So, on Saturday, I took out the aluminum window, and prepped the frame for the new sashes. I already stripped the trim on the outside, and the sill. I had a little bit of trouble getting the jamb liners in. I was using roofing nails to attach the clips at first, then switched to screws. The problem came when I went to install the parting bead at the top. It was way too small. So I measured the opening, then measured the window. It was only 30" wide, instead of 34". We couldn't leave it like that, so Deb came up with a temporary solution, until we can get a new sash. We took out the stool (the sill on the inside), and put the aluminum window back in there. The previous owner cut the ends of the stool off, so we need to replace it anyways. It works for now. Really aggravating though, these weren't cheap sashes. I talked to the window guy this morning, and he admitted that it was his fault. They're ordering new sashes, so it's probably going to be at least 4 or 5 weeks. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the rest of the sash replacements. I went out and got the stain for the windows an everything. Oh well, you can't rush this kind of thing.

Shingle Ripper

On Sunday, I started pulling all the nails that were holding the mesh on for the stucco. We tore the stucco off last summer, while we were building a deck. The wall is cedar shingles, and it's in okay condition. At one point, cellulose insulation was blown in, so there's holes at every stud bay. I need to remove the shingles with the holes, so we're using a shingle ripper. It's kind of like what tow truck drivers use to unlock car doors. You pry up the shingle, and move the ripper around until you find a nail. Once it hooks on a nail, then you hammer it down, and it cuts the nail off. It's a lot more difficult than it sounds, it's hard to get it up high enough, and even harder to find the nails. I got a few out, and wrecked some that I didn't want to wreck. It's better than nothing, and even if you ruin 2 shingles, at least it's possible without removing them all. Now we just have to get some new shingles to replace the ones I've taken out. I hear you can get them pre-primed, so that's what we'll probably get. I'm going to prime all the areas that are exposed at the moment. When I removed the top row of shingles, I got showered in vermiculite, not very pleasant. And it can contain asbestos as well, so not good.
I took out one of the aluminum replacement windows, to see how the wood frames look underneath. The one I checked was about 1/4" out of square, so we'll see if jamb replacements are a possibility. I don't like the replacements that go on top, because they make the openings smaller. So we'll either do jamb replacements, or replace the whole window. We're going to try one first, to see how it goes. The frame still has the pulleys in it, one set is knocked in, so the aluminum slider could fit. The trim itself isn't in the best shape, I think it got banged up when they replaced the windows. The sill is in good shape, and it would seem a waste to have to replace it all. We'll do one, and see how it goes.

Vancouver Home Show

We went to the homes show on Friday night, with the kids in tow. Deb wanted to go, to see some of the Hgtv celebrities, namely Colin and Justin from How Not to Decorate. Even though we got there early, we were near the back, and they were a little hard to hear.

After we browsed around the displays. The long hallway into the show was disappointing, I can only handle so many people selling household junk. We checked out some of the window displays, Loewen and Marvin. The windows look impressive in person, and they cost about what I thought they would. We'll see what the real cost is, when we go to purchase.
They had this really impressive hot tub there. It's not our thing at all, but I could appreciate the craftsmanship nonetheless. It stands about 20' high, and is all made out of concrete, but looks like natural granite, it had little caves leading from one pool to the next, and even had an upper pool with room for 2. It wouldn't even fit in our backyard, it was really cool though.
They had the log cabin there, that was displayed at the Torino Olympics. The construction is beautiful, it really does look like a display though, there wasn't even a door, or wall to enclose the bathroom.

We didn't get a lot done on the house this weekend, I wasn't feeling so good, and there was just too much family stuff to do. I did strip wallpaper off one of the walls in the nook. It looked like there was only one layer of wallpaper, and then paint underneath. I was wrong though, someone left the paper from a previous layer of wallpaper, and painted that. It's going to be hard to get off. We mostly started on this, because it looked so terrible, the wallpaper. The kids ripped off a few parts, because they were loose, and the wall was dirty, and couldn't be cleaned. I don't think it looks much better, but at least it's progress. I pulled up some of the floor too, to see what's underneath. There's a layer of vinyl tile, that really brittle, and then then it's a sheet of linoleum underneath. I used the heat gun, and got through that. There's a fir floor underneath, it looks like it's painted brown. We won't be pulling it up for a while, we have to wait until we're ready for the kitchen. It looks like it could have a nice floor underneath. Our neighbours had plywood nailed to theirs, and even with all the nail holes, it looks great refinished. Hopefully we'll have a more productive week, it's good to have a rest once in a while too though.

Hallway Stripping coming along

Well it's a hard place to strip since it's so narrow, we finished stripping/sanding one of the doorways last night. We start with the heat gun and get all the paint off. There's this goo underneath, it's like filler, but it's everywhere. I do a coat of chemical stripper, to get the thick parts of that off. Then you need to scrub it hard with denatured alchohol. I use the 3m stripping pads instead of steel wool. You soak it in alcohol, then scrub like crazy. I think I spent 2 hours scrubbing the one doorway. When it's 99% cleaned off, I switch to sandpaper. I use a coarse 100 grit, then 180 grit. Anyways, we got the first coat of waterlox on, and it looks mostly good. Might have to steal Gary's trick of painting the parts that still show paint. I've been finding that 4 coats of waterlox does a good job. So 3 more coats, and then strip the hardware, and we're ready to put the door to the upstairs back up. There's still a long way to go, that'll be 2 doors out of the 7 doors in the hallway. Only the bedroom and the bathroom are still there, so we're half done. We're planning on getting new ones for the dining room, and the living room. Probably french doors, with a prairie pattern, to match the windows (the original ones) and the front door.

We're also trying to find good replacement windows. I'd like to avoid vinyl windows. We may use them in the kids rooms upstairs, we'd rather not though. I've been looking at Marvin windows, they're one of the only ones that has vertical grain fir as an option, and they're the only ones that have the fir, and inserts as an option. Loewen has fir windows, put they dont' do the insert type. The Marvin french doors are really nice too, they have the european style locking frames, so they're really secure, since we'd be using them as exterior doors, to the new deck we're planning. I'm sure they're really pricey too, so I'm sure we'll be saving our pennies for a long time. For the interior, we're thinking the simpson doors look nice. We've looked for salvage doors, and haven't really found anything good, so we'll probably end up with new. It seems like salvage french doors, in the pattern we're looking for are hard to find.