The big excitement this week was the installation of new windows in the west wall of the downstairs ‘snug’ area. Other activities included adding Christmas decorations to the outside of the house and windows. A final yard leaf pick-up was completed. Holiday card manufacture advanced.
One of the 2020 “to – do” projects was completed on December 2nd when Bob the Builder [and his helper Bill] arrived to install new windows in the downstairs ‘snug’ room.
This room is off the living room and currently houses a sofa that doubles as a dog bed and a trestle table that Pam uses for craft work. The door to the downstairs bathroom enters into this room. Pocket doors (one side operational!) are at the room’s entry.
The snug’s existing window frame had been drastically cut up when a previous owner installed a large window AC unit; the window was leaking copious amounts of cold air in the winter and hot air in the summer.
The new windows are vinyl, double-hung, and have self-storing screens. The glass portions can be tilted inward for cleaning. While not state-of-the-art, they are very good windows and appear to be very well built. We can already feel the difference when we walk into the room — it’s now the same temperature as the living room!
Below are a few photos of the installation. Areas around the frame, never calked when the original windows were installed, received a combination of expanding foam and silicon calk to make sure air leakage was reduced to a minimum.
Note: The bottom sill has been “boxed” with aluminum to cover the badly cut-up sill left over from the window AC unit installation. (Look at the lower right-hand corner of the first photo to see some of the damage.) The finished job looks crisp and attractive!
Now there’s only one more job that we had wished to get completed this year, wiring of the garage addition. We have not heard from Jake the Electrician about when/if he will be here to complete that task.
While several smaller jobs were done this week, the most time consuming job was to finish decorating the outside of the house. I now have the timers set so lights come on and go off at about the same time. One string of lights was replaced when a bulb burned out, shutting off half the lights in the string. I later fixed the defective string by replacing all the bulbs, one at at time, until I found the bad one. Pam laughs at me for spending time doing this as new lights are not that expensive, but I hate to throw things away without some attempt to fix them. We did throw out a bunch of light strands inherited from the previous owner, however.
Speaking of throwing things away…
When Bob the Builder was here he had a large dump trailer parked nearby. The old windows he replaced in the ‘snug’ were put in this trailer to be taken to a disposal site. I mentioned I had a bunch of additional old windows – and a door – I had removed from the basement and were now in the garage attic. Bob offered to let me put these in his trailer as well so I could be rid of them.
Pam and I worked as a team to get the old stuff down from the garage loft. I think there was a total of 12 or 13 old windows, some old screen door frames, and one old (and rotting) wooden door that we were able to put in the trailer.
Along the way some of the old window glass broke, initiating a clean up, but overall the project went pretty well. I was pleased to be able to free up the storage space and get rid of this junk, particularly as I’d had no idea how I was going to dispose of it. My thanks to Bob for his offer.
We did keep the three old-fashioned screen door inserts for the existing porch doors. I had labeled them when putting in the storm glass inserts so I will know which screens go where when we get ready to use them next summer.
Another project involved adding Christmas lights to the porches and inside decorations to windows. This is a work-in-progress as we see what seems to look good and work in our setting.
Pam took one of the rope lights and made a heart in the downstairs east bay window, shown below in the first photo. So far this is the most singular feature of our holiday lights. Here are a few photos taken this past week:
We’ll be cutting our live tree this coming week and it will go in the upstairs Media Room. Pam had already assembled an artificial tree for parlor bedroom bay window display, but the cats thought it was Tree Disneyland, so it ended up out on the porch.
Thursday I finished what looks to be the last leaf clean-up of the year. There are still areas of snow on the north side of the house so my efforts could not cover all areas of the lawn, but I did get the heaviest build-up of leaves from around the garden enclosure, dog run, and near the garage. Some of the mulched leaves ended up on the east side flower bed (the Mary Lynn Memorial bed) and the rest were taken to the compost/dump area I have been using all summer.
Pam encourages me to get out of the house during these shorter winter days and I get a chance to play with my ‘big boy toys’ so we both win. Next week I will put the blade on the John Deere and get ready for winter snows.
Other than that, it was a quieter week than most, with more down time. Between projects I’ve been reading and helping Pam with holiday card production. Pam provides the artistry and design (and most of the assembly) and I help by printing photos and labels. Cards will be going out in the mail over the next ten days.
Photo Archive
Back in 1999 Pam and I took a trip to England. This week’s gallery features some early digital photos of that trip. (More will be featured in upcoming posts.)
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
I was pondering, while assembling holiday cards and writing notes, the greatly-reduced number of cards I now prepare. We sent over 100 back in the day; now it’s slightly under 50. And how it’s very likely, in twenty years or so, sending cards during the holidays will be reduced to about a dozen. Maybe the postal service won’t even exist by then.
Much as Himself enjoys playing with Big Boy Toys, I have always enjoyed cut-and-paste and find it relaxing. Perhaps it’s crazy on my part to assume recipients of a hand-made card appreciate the effort. Himself already sends an increasing number of digital cards for holidays; that may constitute our entire card-giving experience in the future.
Happy Trails.
Outdoor Christmas Lighting:
How does your display compare with neighbors within Elma?
Is Elma a “Festive” community, or dark & dreary during the holidays?
Larry:
The Town of Elma is pretty typical for a small midwest town. Most, but not all, of our neighbors have some lights up. Many decorations are outside and contain holiday figures or scenes. We have more lights in our windows than average, however.
The town decorates the park really well, featuring a drive through route with several stops, each stop depicting a Christmas or winter theme. It is very attractive and above what most small towns do, based on my memories of growing up in central Wisconsin.
Our inside tree will be upstairs in the media room bay window so it can be seen from Main Street. I also plan to add another string of lights to the front porch, placed around the posts that border the steps. We are not quite done decorating yet!
We would have put lights on the garage addition had the electrical work been done. Right now there are no outlets in place to power the lights. Next year will be a different situation; more lights will be added to the holiday mix.
Thanks for the note!
Jer
You have gotten a lot of work done!! Everything is looking good. I have to get on at work to look at the pictures. My security does says phishing?? Thanks for the ecard. And tell Pam if she enjoys making cards I say do not give it up!!