A Weekend of Windows!

Recently, we purchased some new windows to replace the huge 12 foot and 2 foot single pane windows (from the early 50's) in our living room. The hard part of the whole bit (up until yesterday) was waiting for the windows to come in - because of their odd dimensions, we had to custom order them. In fact, they had to put the big picture window in a casement frame so that it would be able to withstand the weight of the glass! It's a BIG window.

     With the help of a few friends and relatives, we installed all three of those fine windows yesterday. Thanks again, everyone for all of your hard work! The windows look amazing. There's still a bit of work that needs to be done (framing, caulking, painting) but that will be a project for next weekend!

** A special shout out goes to our friend Nate, who helped us immensely with ordering the windows and completing the window installation. He ensured that we had the right materials and equipment to work with, and that our windows were framed and level! Thanks again, Nately! **

Daniel taping the large window so that it didn't break when we took it out ... or at least if it did break, the tape would hopefully hold it together.

Jim and Steve started the project while Daniel and Nate picked up supplies. I was in charge of drinks and food... ahem, I mean I was the "overseer."

Steve hard at work prying the framing out. Thanks again for showing up to help, Steve-o! We love you! 

Jimbo tearing out nails and all sorts of goodies from the framing. He was a trooper - he even got a few battle wounds from the windows (thankfully via plastic edges, no rusty nails)!

 

They were quick! Before I knew it, we could see the edges of the glass...

 which were covered with some sort of nasty glue and old glazing. It took a good while to scrape all of it off so that the windows could come out successfully.

We decided to put some tape on the smaller windows as well, and create "handles" for better leverage when taking the windows out.

The first window almost made it out without breaking. Luckily part of the window stayed in place in the frame so that we could take the broken part out without anyone getting hurt.

Success! At this point we still had the plastic behind the windows, which was nice. It probably saved my allergies from being worse than they are today, what with all of the saw dust floating around inside the house. It's a small price to pay for awesome new windows. My job didn't really start until yesterday evening (and today) ... clean up! ;)

Learning our lesson from the first window, we scraped away all of the glue from the remaining windows. We took them out without any breaking. 

We put up some sealant-type stuff (Nate would be able to tell you what it was... I can't remember) so that the windows would be air-tight as well as water-tight!

Wow, our house is a bit drafty without any windows. As you can see, all of the plastic had to be taken off of the windows so that we could take the framing and sill off from the inside of the house.

After a while it seemed pretty silly to keep having to use the door to go in and out of the house... hmm, 16 feet of open area to straddle, or a door...

The guys did a great job of taking out the sill without damaging the wainscot. Thanks!

The first window went in smoothly.

Daniel secured the window by screwing the nail fins in while Nate made sure the window stayed level.

On to the next window!

Our deck took a bit of a beating from all of the work. Sorry deck, we'll clean you soon!

This window was a bit trickier to put in... still pretty easy, though.

Looking pretty good!

We saved the best for last - the big picture window. It was NOT fun putting in. Unfortunately, the framing from the original window had sagged, which made putting this window in ... well, not fun. At all. We had to angle the window and put the top in first, then the bottom...

 at which point we had to use a mallet (and pure awesome strength *flexes muscles*) to get the bottom of the window into position. Yes, I did actually help and not just take pictures.

Daniel secured the window.

We then caulked and foam insulated the outside and inside of the windows. Actually, there's still a little bit of work to be done on both yet. It ended up being pretty late by the time we got the windows in. We'll finish up in the next day or so.

Caulked, compliments of me. Don't mind the dirty window.

We then cut, primed and painted pieces of wood to frame the window out, and screwed them into place.

 The inside of my house doesn't look so hot anymore... *cry*

It'll look better next weekend when we finish up and put the framing and sill back in.

All in all, it looks pretty darn good! Great job, everyone! I took these shots this morning, as it was too late to take a picture of the mostly finished project last night.

Pano-view!