Windows on the World

 

When I got down to the new house this morning, I thought I would see some windows installed.  Instead, the framers were out back working on the roof rafters for the screen porch.

 

The porch was really starting to shape up, but I wanted to see windows!

The plumbing pipes were stacked neatly in the garage, but no plumbers were plumbing.

The windows were distributed to the rooms they belonged in, but none were installed, yet.

Finally, they grabbed the triple for the master bedroom and got started.

They started unwrapping it,

found that the metal straps required a screw driver,

got it unscrewed, tipped it out the opening,

 

and popped it into place:

Then they made sure that everything was plumb and level

and got ready to nail down the fins.

After much shouting and coordinating between the guys inside and the guys outside, I heard what sounded like, “Plumbo!” and the nail was struck!

Pretty soon they got into a rhythm of unpacking and unscrewing and popping the windows into place.

Always checking for “plumbo!”

And another

and a casement

and after I ran an errand or two,

the whole front of the house was almost done.

They were working on the back.  Happily, they started on the top floor, so that anything dropped wouldn’t mess up the windows below:

But it was another acrobatic feat:

Another crew was around on the side putting up the kitchen window:

They were also up pretty high:

They didn’t get all the windows in , but it’s really starting to look like a house now, don’t you think?

It’s a Wrap!

Watching the framing has been really exciting, but it’s not a party ‘til they break out the plastic wrap!

They were really wrapping things up this morning when my better half and I arrived to meet with the electrician.

It was so cold out there I wished they would wrap me in plastic!

I got a kick out of the house wrap guy’s improvised billboard in the gables:

What was his name again?  It’s just right on the tip of my …

gable.

I also got a thrill from  the Cirque de Soleil act with a ladder on the roof:

Not for love or money would I climb that ladder, I can tell you.

By the end of the day they had things all wrapped up:

Tomorrow, the windows,

instead of being stacked up inside the house,

will be slipped into place.  Stay tuned!

Hanging Out

Everybody was just hanging out today. 

The last few windows had to be framed out, because we got a Christmas present yesterday.

 

 

On the 9th day of Christmas, my builder sent to me…

a houseful of Pella windows!

Jason the Mason

We had a visit last week from Jason the Mason. There he is on the left of the brick pile in the striped shirt. His mission was to “audition” for the job and give us a mortar sampler.

Jason and his helper nailed up two boards next to the front door opening and began a sample wall. Here you see the bricks in the foreground and the beginning of the wall in the background. The bricks look really different on they end than the do on the face!

I liked the messy looking mortar.

But apparently the mortar has to be “tooled” and compacted or else it will develop hairline cracks and wick in moisture.

So, Jason the Mason did rustic tooling with his trowel.

Even thought this was a tear down sample wall, he made sure that he didn’t leave any voids. I liked his attention to detail.

Then after running 8 courses with Ivory Buff mortar, he started again to show us the Desert Buff.

Then Jason and his helper were off. They were roping in a rodeo this weekend and had to get the horses cleaned up. What a great life! Brick laying all week and rodeos on the weekend – it’s a little boy’s dream life!

Above you can see the two different mortar colors. I drew a line on the right hand board to show where the mortar changes. They are pretty close when wet.

Here it is yesterday after drying out over the weekend.

Now the color difference is more pronounced. I think I have a preference, but I’ll withhold my opinion until the experts (i.e. the architects Justeen and Denise) come and weigh in this afternoon. After all, they’ve done this before and have a better eye for what the finished product will look like.

Living Room, Dining Room, Bedroom, Oops!

When our kids were little, there was a board book that would hit their little toddler funny bones. It was called Red Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. Here’s the cover:

The plot is that everyone wears an article of clothing in a different color, but the turkey always gets it wrong. Like so:

Well we’ve had a few oops things during framing, so this book came to my mind.

The first was this oops:

The pipe for the toilet is just a wee bit off center here. My better half cracked, “How did they know we were right handed?” Oh. My. That’s really putting the urg in ergonomics, isn’t it?

Then when the architects came to visit, they noticed this oops:

Those dormers look pretty good, but they are not quite as drawn on the plans. The framers thought this would be “mucho better.” However, the little rooflets are meant to sit right down on the tops of the windows,

more like this:

These are still higher than drawn, but they are a happy compromise.

From the inside you can see that they sit right down on top of the header. They don’t offer quite as much head room inside this way, but they look better from the outside. The tall ones didn’t really suit the house.

The next oops was on the stairs.

They needed two more stairs to get from the main floor to the basement. Because of the way the floor joists and such were configured, they decided to split the landing to get the extra two steps like this:

Instead of having landings like the ones from the main floor to upstairs that are square like this:

I wasn’t a fan of the split landing, especially when the entry to the stairs down looks like this:

To me there is all kinds of space to put two steps in the area here. So, they are putting the extra two steps in the beginning area here and reworking the landings to be square. It’s hip to be square, after all.

This doesn’t really count as an oops, but here it is anyway.

Darling daughter’s bedroom and bathroom are under the eaves of two intersecting rooflines. So, she ended up with all of this wasted space under the eaves.

Since her room is the smallest, we just couldn’t have that. Plus it was just too much fun to dream up ways to use the space. The space you see above is on the right below.

Builder Gary and I decided that we could tuck a built in desk right into that spot.

Here it is with the rafters tucked away to make room for a desk.

While we were at it, we recaptured this space in her closet. It is just the right height for hanging clothes.

Another oops that came to light when Denise and Justeen were visiting was the roofline that met the wall in the stair tower. I commented that I wasn’t sure what that was all about, since the water (or icicles) would pour into the upstairs. Denise looked at me with a straight face and told me that was my water feature.

Well, if you can’t fix it, feature it….

It is kind of pretty to have icicles forming down into your family room.

But seriously, Denise went on to explain that there was meant to be a “cricket” that would connect the two roof lines and divert the water away from wall and down to the gutters. The cricket has since been constructed.

All I can say is

“Jiminy Cricket…”

All’s well that ends well.