Adventures of installing a second story window
February 8th, 2010
Lee took Monday afternoon off from work and got the upstairs window installed. This was the first window that we have ever done. I was very nervous about this whole process. I was sure we were either going to drop it off the second story as we were trying to install it or Lee was going to fall to his death. Thankfully neither of those things happened.
It was a slow process. Lee had been slowly prepping for it the week before he actually installed it. Then it would be raining and there was no way I wanted him on a ladder in the rain. Yes, I am paranoid. That and I know that Lee doesn’t really enjoy heights.
See this picture here really freaks me out. Lee hanging out a second story window trimming the wood shingles before we could install the window. Though somehow I was the one admonished to get back when I tried to hang out the window. That might have something to do with my accidental clumsiness… Even though I wasn’t feeling clumsy at that particular time.
We went ahead and took out the old sill plate as it looked pretty weathered. Lee added a new one. Then he added three spacers and put another two by four on that. We needed to raise the new window up by three inches to bring all the windows of this type to the same height.
Since we raised the window height and the replacement was a little taller too, that meant that we had to cut out a higher section above the window. Now that was a royal pain in the butt trying to sawzall though all those tongue and groove plank boards along with metal flashing. Lee’s arms may never recover.
We somehow managed to get everything square, flashed, caulked, nailed, straight, working, (yes that’s right, both parts of the double hung window actually work correctly) all with no accidents by either of us that required hospital stays. Lee hasn’t gotten the trim on the outside of the window done yet but hey, we’ll leave that for another day.
February 15th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Wow, I would have been nervous too. Still, if you can do it yourself, that’s more affordable windows! All our windows should be replaced too, but thats not for now. The only ones I have my eye on at present is the one in the kitchen, when we do the remodeling in there.
February 16th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Yup, that’s why we are putting them in ourselves. It will save us a mint. That and doing them all one at a time makes it seem not so expensive as the cost is drawn out.
February 16th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
The window is looking good. Everything on an old home seems to take so much work to replace, at least it does to me. Our home projects have been slow since winter hit…
February 16th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Lynn, it’s the same here. Winter came and our get up and go went with the cold weather. That and Lee and I are always somewhat slow in our home projects.
February 17th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Whew! Just seeing Lee hang out the window made me hold my breath. I don’t mind heights, but I’m a worrier when it comes to someone else.
And it works properly on the first try. Congrats! Let me know when I can borrow Lee, will ya?
March 5th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
[...] us – fixing up our living space in a time of recession to make it more efficient and livable (Farm Folly, 5 Acres and a Dream and Thrums). I think more of us are staying at home rather than traveling [...]
March 5th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Benita – Yeah, I was holding my breath too. I’m not a fan of ladders, especially tippy 28 ft extension ladders. For most of the work, I had a 2×4 screwed across the window horizontally on the inside, and the extension ladder ran up through the window opening and rested on it. The idea was that there was no way for the ladder to fall, so I just had to hold on.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:57 pm
[...] Monday the window that Lee installed back in February had its trim installed. We hired out this work because Lee hates [...]