Thirteen Windows

One of our first priorities was to replace all the windows in the older part of the house, the part that will serve as the B & B. Although I'm all for shopping Canadian, when it comes to most building supplies, they can sometimes be half the price in the U.S. as they are here. And, when you're buying thirteen windows at approximately $500 each, that's a pretty big savings. So, lucky to be living just minutes from the border, we ordered our windows and made three trips over to pick them up back in April. We did have to pay tax on them when we crossed the border, but it was still a bargain compared to what we would have paid here.

We installed the window in the office first, as a sort of trial run. It went fairly well, then we did the ones at the top of the stairs and in the smallest bedroom. That was a little more harrowing; Rod was standing outside on the ladder while I was inside the house. The windows have to be installed from the outside-in, so I passed the window through the opening to Rod (not as easy as it sounds! --very  heavy!), who then put it in place and held it there while I checked that it was level on all sides. Sounds simple, I know, but I was shaking by the end of it as I was quite sure that I would accidentally let go and both window and Rod would go crashing down to the ground.

We're now working on the windows in the living room. They're easier than the other three we did, as we're building the openings from scratch rather than trying to fit a perfectly square window into an anything-but-square opening. And, the fact that they're on the ground floor certainly helps. We've got two in, and two more to do. Then the doors, then the upstairs bedroom windows, then off with the front porch, then on with the new porch...and so it goes.

Removing the old windows. The doors were off-center; because there was a post right smack-dab in the middle of the front! We were able to remove it and replace it with two on either side. 

 Framing in two of the windows.

 Two windows in!

 Starting to frame-in the other two windows.