House Made

Well you’re in luck. That’s right. All of you who are sick to death of hearing us blather on about windows (Betsy) can now relax a bit. We got the last two pre-rainy season windows in yesterday. That’s three sides of the house down, one to go! And that last side will most likely wait until next spring. Yes, there is still trim to hang and touch up painting to be done. But we’re pretty much done with it for now.

So, in celebration, we’re going on vacation for ten days starting in about two hours. Yee-freakin-ha!

When we return, you’ll see such hits as:
restoration of the front porch
new wainscot in the dining room
new glass doors for the built in buffet
beadboard and tile in the bathroom
and much much more!

To all those still working on windows themselves: Chin up. As much of a pain in the ass it has been, I would absolutely do it again. Worth it. Worth it. Worth it.

Beth here. 

Here is something you should never, ever say in home repair: “Well, this shouldn’t take too long and then we can spend the afternoon doing something more fun.”

So, shockingly, we’re still working on windows on the weekends. Still. Working. on the. Windows. Because there are many steps, and there’s dry time involved, and as it gets foggier and foggier, the dry time is longer. And we can’t work up the enthusiasm to take out all the windows at once, leaving our house as a giant wind machine.

Anyway, we currently have two awning style windows out, one of which was in good condition, and the other not so much. Merideth took the not-so-good window to her lair of RotFix, and I proceeded to get the glazing out of the good window, and said the infamous, never-say-them, words above. Which meant that taking the window pane out of the window took FOREVER. As it turns out? This particular pane? Was stuck into its frame with silicone putty, which essentially means glue. I finally ended up standing the entire window over the trash can and banging the glass out in a series of satisfying crashes. MUCH more fun than painstaking removal.

After this, only four more windows to go! We are unsure what will occupy our time when they are finished, as we can’t remember the days before we began.

This weekend was spent doing odds and ends. We touched up paint. Puttyed and sanded holes. Caulked trim. You know that kind of crap that’s always dangling at the end of every project. What we did NOT do, is decorate for Halloween.

And that sucks. I love Halloween. Love it. This year I’m not decorating because adding spiderwebs, bats, tombstones and pumpkins to the bombsite that is currently our house would just make getting in and out of projects worse. And we’ll be out of town for actual Halloween so I’m actually trying to discourage trick or treaters from pre-selecting our house.

Last year I created a giant spider web from fibrous packing tape that encapsulated our porch, had spooky lights, and 4 jacks o’ lantern. This year, nuthin. Scrooge McDuck. Or whatever.

BUT, most importantly, we pulled out and started fixing the LAST set of must-be-done-before-rain windows and may actually get them repaired and reinstalled before we leave in two weeks. I will do the Macarena all the way to the airport if we actually pull it off.

Oh my god, I can’t stop laughing. Someone in Pennsylvania loves Lisa LaPorta and we made them mad with our grass post. Oh god. Can’t catch breath. Laughing too hard. That’s right. They found our entry by searching on “Lisa LaPorta” and then proceeded to tell us this:

All I can say is that if you don’t know how to get grass started and how to cultivate it into a lush lawn then don’t throw stones at those who do. I think you are all a bunch of whiners that are looking for someone to blame for your ingnorance and shortcomings. It is easy to blame others for your failures. Furthermore, you have no proof other than your own assumptions as to whether or not HGTV did anything other than what they said that they did. Get a life. –
Posted by Anonymous to House Made at 10/10/2005 08:08:04 PM

WE need to get lives for chronicling our reno for our own enjoyment, but “Anonymous” has time to flame people about GRASS while searching for LISA LAPORTA. Oh my goodness. I so needed to laugh this a.m. Thanks “A.” Have a great day!

glazing the divided lights
Originally uploaded by merideth.

So okay. We finally hung the last street-side window. It about killed us. This thing is HUGE and trying to wrestle it into its opening without pitching it out and onto the stairs was no easy feat.

We got the side and bottom pieces of trim up but not the top since just as we were getting it properly positioned we reaized it had succumbed to some crazy corkscrew-style warping that meant no part of it would lie flat. Argh. That will be remedied this weekend.

That piece I’m scraping there? That’s the BOTTOM of the window. See how huge it is?

We also discovered that certain glass cutters at the hardware store had no idea where to find 7/16″ on a ruler. No idea. Just taking guesses. Is it here? No that’s 7/8. Is it here? No that’s 5/8. I know not everyone is familiar with a ruler the way some of us are. But if that’s the case, don’t cut glass. Basic common sense here, people.

trimboards
Originally uploaded by merideth.

As we were priming the window sills, we were fully hoping that even one neighbor would come over and try to diplomatically discern if we were actually putting fuchsia trim up. We so wanted the chance to torture someone. We were gratified when our DIY/engineer neighbor came over and started his round-about conversation. And when we finally gave up our act and admitted that it was only primer, we were gifted with a “THANK GOD” and an air punch. (I do love the guy air punch.)

But then neighbor guy got in on the act and started asking various other neighbors if they liked our new trim color. Everyone was appropriately dismayed at our poor color choice. 

worm
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Ew. I found out today it’s a tomato hornworm and let me say again: EW! The thing was the size of macanudo and is only curled up here because Dixie stomped on it. The thought of its fleshy basketweave back creeping by my foot as I painted windows gives me the shivers.

I must now go shower. Is it on me?