Let There Be Light!!

So I have been extremely busy with work lately so I have not had a whole lot of time to work on the blog or the house.  I have spent a lot of time deciding on what finishes I want in my house so now it is just a matter of collecting the materials before I really tear into things.  For this post I will focus on one of the big structural projects on my home. 

The family room in my house was always very dark. This post shows removing the door that the original homeowners placed in the family room after construction and we replaced it with a wall of new windows.  Basicly we moved everything back to where it was originally since the door didn't make a lot of sense being in this modified location.  Since this wall where the windows would be installed is structural to the house, I had to be very careful when the wall was re-framed.  Below is what the wall used to look like.  You may notice the slit in the drywall along the length.  This was to check where the load bearing studs were so that I could frame the windows around them and decide what size windows would work. 

I ordered all the windows online from Home Depot and they actually sent them via UPS to my house.  They are a high grade vinyl with LowE double paned glass so they are good for Colorado.  With shipping all the windows came in at about $400.00. All three windows are 36” x 60” so I will definitely get a lot of light into the family room.  With the windows in my possession, the first step was to remove the drywall and insulation.  Since it is still cold here in Denver, I completed most of the framing from the inside before I cut through to the outside.  

Below you can see where I started the framing of the two left most windows.  This just took a few hours and you can see where I had to add headers above the windows to re-distribute the weight of the house around to the outside of the windows.  I made these headers oversized because there will be a bathtub above this portion eventually with a lot of weight but it really didn’t need that much structure; it is just better to be safe.  I did all this work while it was snowing outside so I waited another week to actually cut through the outside of the house. 

With my brother’s help, we removed the existing door from the family room.  After we took it out, it appears that the door was actually the original front door and the side windows were framed in with plywood and the glass was single paned.  This is probably why my family room was always so cold.  You can see the opening below. When I did this step I wanted to make sure it was warmer and that I could get all the holes sealed up in one day so the house wasn’t unsecured overnight.  Once the door was removed the countdown clock started ticking away and we had to work quickly.  I actually sold the door on Craigslist for $40 which is good because I figured I would have to just throw it out - it was in pretty bad shape.  

With the door removed I went about re-framing the opening.  This involved removing all the vinyl siding from this portion of the house on the outside.  While I did that my brother cut through to the outside of the house.

The next step was to install the windows.  We had to apply a rubber membrane to the window sills to help drain the water to the outside and then use a window sealant to install the windows.  We did have to add some exterior sheathing to where part of the original door was since there would no longer be an opening in this location.  Once the windows were in place we hammered nails into the flanges and then sealed the flanges with a special rubber tape that is designed to seal the windows to the exterior sheathing of the house and keep moisture out.  You can see this in the two pictures below.

The next step was for me to re-install the vinyl siding to the exterior.  After re-installing the original siding and the Styrofoam insulation, I was ready to re-install the vinyl siding.  This was quite tricky because I had to add new vinyl J-Molding around the windows and then cut the previous siding to fit.  This took a few hours but as you can see below it turned out quite well.  The siding is really dirty because some of it was stored on the side of the house but all this will be cleaned and painted the tan color - hopefully this weekend.  There will also be white wood molding going around the windows just like what was shown in a previous post for the front side of the house.  As a side note, the vinyl molding was purchased from Lowes.com.  As much as I love the Home Depot, Lowes had better options for molding.  When I purchased the first batch of molding locally from a window company I paid almost $15 per 12 foot section.  With Lowes I only paid $4 per 12 foot section and they shipped it free to my local store.  It took about 10 days to get here but Lowes will ship almost anything to your local store for free so it is a good tool to use since this item is not normally stocked by them locally and they have a much bigger selection online.  

While I installed the siding my brother worked on putting the insulation back and installing drywall.  This is just temporary to keep the cold out since we will be doing a troweled plaster texture on all the walls and repainting at a later point.  I will also be adding molding around the windows on the inside as well. 

Well that is really it for that project.  With summer fast approaching I have started planning the work for the back yard.  My plans are to remove some trees, re-grade the backyard, add a retaining wall, build an outdoor fireplace, install a new paver patio on the back of the house, complete the exterior painting, and build a patio with a huge pergola for the side of my house.  I will have lots of work to do but I should have some really neat blog posts.  To leave you all, below is a picture of the greenhouse.  These plants are for my house and my brother’s house.  Most of these are from cuttings of plants last year or seeds.  My brother has really been working on this but it should help make a neat yard this summer.  Keep watching for more updates!