Window Work

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, and it's about three months until Baby Nolan should arrive. Cue: FREAK OUT! After working so much on the house before Sagan's birthday party, we were both ready to take a little break from our projects. A "little" break turned into a few months, but I'm happy to report we are back at it and hard at work to get the living room (and the nursery!!) finished before Nolan's arrival.

The living room...here is what we have had left to do:

• baseboards
• crown molding
• windows (re-run sash cord that has broken, reattach weights, replace sills, and replace trim)
• finish trimming out fireplace/mantle
• mount TV above mantle
• build out cabinets and shelves next to fireplace
• hang chandelier
• place rug and furniture and RELAX!
• (I've probably left something out...)

We decided to start with the windows. The trim has been off of them for months and months! We had planned on replacing the weight/pulley system with springs so we could insulate in the openings around the windows, but decided if we could just use caulk and spray foam to stop any airflow, that would suffice. I insulated around the windows while David worked on making new sills and trim for each window.

We've delayed the project for a while because we had some big decisions to make - however we do the trim on these windows is how we'll eventually do the trim on all the windows around the house. So, the first window took us a bit longer than the rest should. Two of the weights on the first window we worked on were detached, so we had to reattach them. It was a simpler process than I expected, albeit a little stressful! We had to remove the bottom sash, so David first had to pull off the parting bead. Once we got that off, the bottom sash came out pretty easily. Unfortunately, it doesn't move up and down very well, so we used a planer, a putty knife, and some elbow grease to remove the paint from the track the sash is supposed to move up and down on. Made a HUGE difference!

Next, strung the cord through the pulley system and one of the weights, then tied a knot at the weight and at the appropriate length within the window box.

Stringing the sash cord through the pulley system.

We did this on both sides, then put the sash back into the window box and pushed the knots and cords onto each side of the sash.

We measured and marked carefully to make sure the cord was long enough to allow the window to move up and down as it should and to prevent the weight from hitting the top or bottom of the frame behind the trim. 

Once we had the cord attached at both sides of the sash, we made sure it would move up and down freely, then reattached the parting bead.

Bottom sash, weights and the new sill and bottom trim all in place!

Then David measured and cut the rest of the trim and attached it. And voila! We have our new windowsill and trim in place and a functioning window!

Next we had to tackle the double windows on the front of the house. These proved to be more difficult because the weights were detached from the top sashes, so we had to remove both the bottom and the top sashes. By the time we got to the second window of this double set, we felt like old pros (HA!).

We had to remove the storm windows off the outside of the house to cut around the top sash, which had been painted shut. David says if we ever sell this house, we will put in our contract that you can't paint the windows shut! (Suffice it to say this was a tough task...)

With both the top and bottom sashes removed, we were able to plane and scrape the sides so the sashes could easily move up and down on their tracks. Unfortunately (probably many, many years ago), the windows had been painted shut and the tracks had been painted - a big no-no when it comes to keeping the windows functioning properly.

This is what it looks like behind the trim - with the weights and sash cords. When we removed the trim off the double windows, we found that four weights were detached, but two were completely missing. We put out an APB for 7-pound weights, and fortunately we have great friends who are renovating another old home in Murray - who just happened to have two 7-pound weights on hand! Thanks Josh and Ashley!!

After all the blood, sweat and tears, we finally have both windows functioning properly!

This is an exciting sight for us...TRIM on the windows!! 

This project went much more smoothly than we anticipated, but was still pretty demanding. We didn't do everything that we'll eventually have to do to the windows (sand, paint, reglaze, etc.) - but at least they are functioning and we now have templates for the windows in the rest of the house.

And, not to be forgotten...we got the trim around both doorways as well!

I can't wait for this trim to be primed and painted to see how it makes the transom stand out.

Next up: cabinets, shelves, baseboards (which have already been milled and primed!), and 10 million other things. But...yay for progress!

Progress

It's been way too long since I've posted, and I have so many fun projects to give updates about! I'll try to get caught up over the next couple of weeks.

Several weeks ago, I posted here about David's work in creating an opening for the transom. Well, we've finally gotten it in place and it looks amazing! It still needs trim and the wall above it in the dining room needs to be sheet rocked, but we have a glimpse of the finished product and I'm sooooo excited about it!

This is the doorway between the living room and the dining room.

We have decided to stain the transoms instead of painting them (since we'll be staining the doors; all the trim in the house will be white), and chose the 9-light pattern to mimic the pattern in the glass cabinets in the kitchen and in the upstairs window. We ordered the transom raw from Transoms Direct - they custom built it, then shipped to us. David stained it, framed the new doorway, and hung it. The doorway still hasn't been trimmed out, but we'll get there. We're hoping to decide what we want to do in the dining room before we place the trim (and replace the drywall above the door in the dining room).

Oh, and the mess. Please pardon the mess in the living room. Patching all the walls and the ceiling, mudding the drywall above the fireplace...I had no idea how huge of a mess that would make! The sheetrock dust was EVERYWHERE. Actually, it still is everywhere. Every time I think it's all cleaned up, I find another coated surface. Regardless, it has been so much fun to paint the walls and ceiling and see it get closer to being finished.

Drywall complete on the fireplace surround, and patching around the windows and doors.

Patched and primed!

Next up...working on the mantle. I can't wait to show you that project. David has done an amazing job!

Living Room Update

An update on our progress is overdue!

The recent snowy weather has helped us to get quite a bit done around the house. (That doesn't mean I'm not ready for spring.)

So, let's start with the living room. I hesitate to post too many updates showing unfinished products, but, knowing us, it'll take so long to finish them that I'll forget some of the in-between steps.

In the living room, we have decided to add transoms above the doors (as I've mentioned before). One of the door frames is pretty much ready for a transom. The other needed some work. We tackled this project one Saturday, with the hope of starting and finishing that part of it in one day to maintain the structural integrity of the door frame. Basically, the height of the doorway between the entryway and living room was taller than the door into the dining room. It has enough space for us to add a transom without having to make that doorframe taller. The doorway to the dining room needed to be taller to make room for a transom.

We started by opening up the wall above the doorframe to see what we were working with. (Sidenote - sometimes when I say "we", I truly mean David and me. Others, like now, I mean just David. I was way out of my element!!) David then removed the trim around the door and the existing door jamb.

The existing header and cripple studs (circa 1904 construction) - and David cutting down the shiplap in the dining room above the door.

We then built a temporary wall on both sides of the doorframe to support the ceiling joists while we removed the existing header and cripple studs. We set the top and bottom boards for the temporary wall down on be floor and measured to the ceiling so we'd know the exact height the temporary studs needed to be cut to. Once we had our temporary walls in place, David cut out the existing header and cripples.

Temporary walls on either side of the existing doorframe to support the ceiling joists

Once the temporary walls were in place, we [read David] removed the existing header and cripple studs

Now it was time to reframe in the opening to allow for a larger doorway and transom. Because of the way the door was trimmed out, we were lucky that there was enough space for us to add our own header and jack studs, and still maintain a 32" finish width.

We started by finding the height we needed the header to be at. Then we measured the necessary height for each jack stud. We tacked the jack studs to the existing wall studs, attached the header (which we made by sandwiching a 1/2" piece of plywood between two 2x6s), and then placed the two cripple studs above the header, lining them up under the ceiling joists to make sure the joists were well-supported. (Clearly I had to get David to explain what the heck we did for this post. Again - out of my element. Although I did use the framing nailer a few times.)

New jack studs tacked into place

David got tired and had to call the big guns in. Actually, he made me use the nailer. I'm glad he did though. I'm basically an old pro at this (Dad always had my sister and I help him with projects around the house. Just don't ask me to engineer any of it!)

Once all of that was in place, we removed the temporary walls from either side of the doorframe. And, later that night I about gave David a heart attack by yelling "David, when did the ceiling by the new doorframe crack?" It didn't. I was trolling. His response was exactly what I was hoping for, and the words he used are not appropriate for posting on here. :)

A view of the new header and supports, prior to us removing the temporary supports on either side

Now, we have the framing in place to handle a transom. We just need a transom. It is on order and will hopefully be here soon!

In other living room news, we have lights! We're already enjoying our overhead lights immensely. It makes working in there so much easier, and I can't wait to see what a difference it makes once we finish the room and get our furniture back in there.

David has also started framing out the fireplace and mantle. I'll have to do a separate post about that. It's technical enough too that I have no clue what he's doing, but it looks good and looks like progress so I'm excited about it!

We have a little work left to do on framing that out, then will be hanging Sheetrock on it. We also need to replace the Sheetrock behind the baseboards that we removed to insulate and to run electrical (we have several more outlets in the room now too...yay!).

Once that is done, we will tile the hearth, add built ins next to the fireplace, paint, work on the windows, replace the baseboards and the window and door trim, add crown molding, hang our center light fixture, and then hopefully be finished with this room! Bets on how long it'll take us to get that all done?

And, it should be mentioned, we have the sweetest helper when working on these projects. It wears her out though! Thank goodness for her love of Disney princess movies that keep her occupied, and for overcoming her fear of the sound of the air compressor and nail gun in the next room!