New Windows: Part 1

Hallelujah!  All I have to say is…I love hiring other people to do the work around here, ha!  We’ve never hired a professional until now, and I am so glad that we did.  I wish we had A LOT more moolah so that we could just sit back and let others do the big jobs that we have planned around here.  Don’t get me wrong, we love to do a lot of the work ourselves, but sometimes it’s nice to save the headaches and the cursing, and hire a professional.

I’m sure some of you are saying “It’s just new windows…why the heck didn’t you guys tackle this project yourselves?”  I know a lot of people who have installed their own windows, and it can be a fairly easy DIY if you know what you’re doing.  Well…we actually hired someone this time because our house is brick.  And our single-pane, metal frame original-to-the-1963-house windows were mortared in.  Not installed in a nice wooden frame like most windows; they were in there for good.  Anyway, our favorite contractor figured out the easiest way to get it done right away, and we think they look great!

As you can see, the metal frame, single-pane windows cause a lot of moisture and condensation, and that means mold. Yuck. Bye-bye mold.

For the breakdown, we have a total of 10 windows in our house. I am so grateful that the two eight-foot windows in the living room are already updated, and our sliding glass door to the backyard is nice as well. I don’t know if we would have even bought the house if those needed replacing. Anyway, our room and Harper’s room both have two windows that needed to be replaced, there is one in the main bathroom, one in the office, one in the kitchen and one in the laundry room. We decided to prioritize the window-replacing based on how last winter went. We knew that the two bedrooms were a priority, especially because Harper sleeps in her own room now (she slept in the bassinet in our room last winter), and we wanted to make sure that her room stayed warm. There are four windows right there that were a priority. The window in the bathroom is also a priority, in my opinion, plus it is the smallest so I knew it would be inexpensive – it’s only 2′ x 2′. I hate stepping out of a hot shower into a FREEZING bathroom. So there are the five windows that we are getting replaced today. We’re going to wait on the office, the kitchen, and the laundry room windows. There is also a window in the garage, but I doubt we’ll ever replace that one.

This would have been a fight waiting to happen if we attempted this ourselves! I decided that paying a contractor would be a lot cheaper than a divorce. Just kidding!!

My favorite part is the new wood trim around the windows. Our house has no architectural details whatsoever, and so this made me very happy.

Now to paint!

Isn’t it pretty? Note to self: buy Glenn a router for Christmas so he can make me lots of pretty (and finished) things like this.

I’m so excited to put Harper’s shades back up tonight…her room was so bright this morning, she was up at the crack of dawn!

Nice view, huh? That’s the neighbor’s green house, their red kerosene tank, and a little shed next to our house that we plan to rip out and replace with a gate someday.

We got ours back up last night, along with the blackout shade, so our room was like a cave this morning! It blocks the light even better than before with the new trim because there are no gaps! It is so nice, because this window faces east, and the sun will shine right into our room in the morning. Talk about a wake up call! Our contractor said that the light shining through shouldn’t be that bad anymore, though, because he chose low-e windows for us (i.e. it protects furniture from fading as well as saving energy, so it filters some light). Gotta love our new, energy efficient windows!

The next step is putting a coat of exterior primer on the framing that is on the outside of the house before it gets too rainy and cold. We’ve been talking about putting up some paintable trim on the outside of the windows, to inject some color and detail to our ho-hum exterior. I’m wondering if this would be a good excuse to get it done!

Bye bye, nasty old windows! Stay tuned tomorrow for how the rest of Harper’s windows turned out, and for the new bathroom window! I am so excited for that one. We’ll be doing a lot of painting this weekend. And catching flies…with the open windows there are everywhere in our house today! Nice, right?

I also can’t wait to share the rest of the projects that our new windows have inspired.  Isn’t that funny?  Getting a long awaited project finished gives you the motivation to start the next one!  Does that happen to any of you??