Project: Entry Room Wind-ow
Posted By FarmerJ on February 6, 2009
The barn house has a lot of character. It was custom built by the original owner, and I dare say there is no other barn house quite like it. Well, along with some of that character comes a few flaws. Moving into the barn house last winter and then living here through the four seasons has been a learning experience ~ learning what season portrays which flaw.
It didn’t take long to realize last winter that the front entry room located on the lower level was always exceptionally cold. If the wind was blowing from the south, it was downright frigid. It wasn’t too long after that we realized why that was ~ because of the big wind-ow that faces south. The gaps were so big that enough wind would come through to blow the hair from my face. No lie, and not good when it’s zero degrees accompanied with a 25 – 30 mph wind. You get my draft…er…drift.
Not only was this wind-ow drafty, it was just nasty and ready to fall out of the frame. The photography isn’t poor [the photographer not knowing how to take photos, yes, but nothing wrong with the camera], there’s no PhotoShop tricks to try to embellish the truth. That ‘haze’ you see as you look through the glass is just part of the pure nastiness.
So, I was absolutely elated when Darling Husbie announced that we were going to begin the window replacement project ~ you’ll note from the flowers peaking into the corner of the top photo that it was pre-snow season when we started.
We went to our favorite local home improvement store to do some window shopping. Heehee! Get it? Window shopping? Heehee! Ah-hem, never mind. Anyway, remember the part where I said the barn house is custom and it has character? Well, it also has every oddball size and shape doo-dad on the market installed in it. Including the wind-ow with dimensions of 50″ wide x 65″ tall. Fortunately, we were able to find a very nice dual-pane window measuring 48″ wide x 60″ tall ~ and even more fortunate for me, I have a wonderful live-in fix-it man.
As our luck would have it, the weather turned ‘Nebraska’ on us the day we purchased the window. Temperatures dropped significantly and wind gusts topped nearly 45 mph ~ out of the south, of course. We’d have to postpone our project a few days.
The following weekend was it. It was time. Woohoo! Lovie and I each donned ourselves in our favorite safety glasses, Lovie also in his tool belt [I keep saying I want my own pink tool belt], and we set to work on getting the wind-ow out. We were trying to work carefully, as we wanted to salvage the glass for use on our cold frame box. Within a matter of minutes, the wind-ow was ready to be carried away. Remember the part about it being ready to fall out of the frame? Well, yeah…literally. Just as we lowered it down and began walking away with it in hand, we heard a rather rude noise. It was the sound of one side of the dual glass panes crashing to the brick patio. Whoops.
I set about cleaning up the broken glass while Husbie began measuring and preparing to make the new smaller window fit. He sure is a good fix-it man. With a couple readings of the measuring tape, a couple of zings with the saw and a couple of good whacks with the framing hammer, the nice new window was ready to go in. Some hand and eye coordination, some plum and level coordination and a couple of nods later, the gaping hole was no more. The new window was in and it was time to seal it up tight.
I called dibs on the can and quickly got to work. Lovie thought I’d lost my mind as I sang the words ‘Sticky Foam Queen’ to the tune of Mississippi Queen. Hey, some people whistle while they work, right? I happen to make up song lyrics. I may have gotten a little carried away ~ with the foam, that is ~ because at some point my Darling Husbie swiped the can from me while I had my back turned and made some comment about how airtight R2D2 (our shop vac) is now.
Well, here it is in all its glory. Such a major improvement, one that photos just cannot do justice. The south winds can no longer howl at me while I’m inside. The heat from the wood stove now actually provides heat to the house rather than merely attempt to offset the arctic blast that used to penetrate that old rickety wind-ow.
Some time passed before we were able to complete the inside, however. Because of the odd size of the old wind-ow and the way the builder fashioned the inner frame, there was no way the original woodwork was going to work with the new window. But I am pleased to announce that as of January 31, the inside framework and ledge is complete! All that’s left is to decide on what type of new window covering I want to install. Woo-double-hoo!
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Yeah!!! A new window. No more drafts (which I can say there was, when I was there this past year). OUR flowers love you for this.
I say (with hand raised) Good Day!!!!
Now hang on…So I see a ponder chair next to “Lovie.” The shot shows him looking like he is working, but the chair??? giggle giggle
Heehee! It does sort of look like that, huh? Actually, that chair was being used as a ladder ~ mostly by me since I’m somewhat vertically challenged…but occasionally by my Lovie.
You can also see just the top of R2D2 in that photo. He’s got a good coat of Sticky Foam on him now. Uh…insulation to keep him warm this winter? Heehee!