Off Like A Herd Of Turtles: Windows, mostly.

Holidays are fun, in part, because you get the opportunity to see people who you don't see often. Our good friend Dee Dee came over to our house for dinner, but first she admired the view from the roof....

As you may have noticed in that last picture, Sam cut his hair! I like it a lot better short :)

We wanted to install some windows, so the other day Sam spent a fair amount of time cutting a bunch of wood at weird angles. As those of you who have seen the plans may recall, several of the small square windows on the side of the house are to be angled out- it's gonna look really cool, but it requires some crazy framing!

Ok, here is the interior of the garage before...

and after the hole is cut in the plywood.

Here are two of the pieces Sam cut, that go up and down the sides of the window (the thicker one towards the back of the house, the smaller one towards the front- you'll see.) Note that the piece on the left has two 90 degree corners, and the one on the right only has one. In other words, these were a major pain in the neck to cut! (Sam's language was a bit more colorful than that! :) )

Once all the wood was cut, it was time to start nailing it around the window hole, making sure that everything was level...

Here you can see that the piece to Sam's right juts out further than that on his left.

Soon the framing for the first window was all done! We thought it looked pretty cool.

So we put up the flashing, installed the window, and nailed it in. We are getting pretty good at this!

We did one more that day, and then admired the sunset. Tomorrow, we wanted to install two more!

So the first one we tackled was the third (last) window in the garage...

Once all three were all installed, we thought it looked pretty neat! And Sam was pleased that the lines all matched up.

The next one we installed was kinda scary. First, I went upstairs to the master bedroom, where I had a chance to admire all the wiring that has been done. Some day not too far away, all this will be covered up, but there is really a jumble of spaghetti up there!

Ok, so see that square hole, at the tippy-top of this next picture? See how high up it is? That, dear reader, is the next window we're going to install.

I had it pretty easy- my job was to stand here, on the inside. Even so, my heart was in my mouth!

Sam caulked the window...

... then went downstairs down the ladder in the back, while I waited ...

... and then he started climbing up. It really is a far way down.

For obvious reasons, I don't have pictures of the next couple of steps. I handed the window to Sam through the hole, and then he held it up while I cranked it open a bit, and then I held it close to the side of the house while he nailed it in. Once the first couple of nails were in, I could let go, and get this picture.

And then we were done! That is all of the square windows, installed!

Other things that have been going on: Sam had bought a stainless steel sink to use in the garage bathroom, but decided that it was too big. Rather than hunt for another one, he made one! Yup, he took a stainless steel bowl that we had and never used (I can't stand the sound it makes!), drilled a hole in the bottom, and installed a drain. Voila'- a sink!

Also, we've been getting ready for the delivery of the new, extra kitchen cabinets, which should happen next week. Sam started out by smashing the tiles to get them out of there...

But after I'd left for school, he discovered a much easier, more efficient, and more fun way... he used his new diamond blade! ( I took pictures when I got home) [Sam says: I was at Dixieline and they had diamond blades for 8 bucks. Didn't need one then but I thought it would be cool to have if I ever needed it...so I bought one and it really came in handy. It bolts right on to my circular saw and you use it like you would a wood blade for plywood. Highly recommended!] [Kim again: hey, check out the fabulous retro linoleum that used to be in the kitchen!]