Friday, October 22, 2010

Window-to-doors, part I

In our family room, we have a picture window that overlooks the back pasture. It's where I sit on the couch and drink my morning chai while watching the horses, chickens, and Anie go about their business. I love this window!

The window itself isn't in great shape. It's a single-paned aluminum-framed window, and the wood around the bottom of the frame is pretty rotted out. You can actually push the entire window about 2 inches out from the frame - eeek!

You can see how rotten the wood is around the bottom of the window frame.

We had contemplated replacing the framing and the window itself, but then realized that it was in the perfect location for a double French door, with some solid glass panes on either side (the existing window is 9 feet wide - too wide for a standard French door). Plus, it would exit out onto the area that we plan to make our back patio/garden.

We've put in a French door before, but never anything that required masonry work, so we decided to hire this project out (well, OK, and we didn't really feel like we could get it done in a reasonable amount of time - plenty of other projects to work on that we HAVE got the skills for). We got a very reasonable estimate from our favorite contractor, and work started today.

Destruction - from the outside.

They used this nifty wrap to seal it until they can put the door in - should be tomorrow.

Just how rotted was the window frame? They had to put supports in on the inside just to hold the windows up once they had taken out the rest of it!

View from the inside. It's going to look great with a French door instead! Also, check out the protective wrap they put down on the carpet. These are the tricks of the trade that the hubby and I know nothing about.

Once this is done, we'll grade the ground away from the house more and begin to put in our patio and back garden. Fall is the perfect time for planting around here, so we're trying to get a lot of plants in the ground this year. That way, they'll have the best chance to put down roots in preparation for the hot, dry summer months.

2 comments:

  1. Very cool! That'll be beautiful.

    I can tuck point and mix mortar and ~probably~ build a wall, but I think I'd hire that job out too. I don't think I quite have the brick chops to do that right.

    The sticky plastic is nice, but it's fairly expensive. You can masking tape contractor paper down for a similar effect - it rips really easily if it's wet, but holds up ok when it's dry. Or you could just say to hell with the carpet and not protect it at all ;) My husband HATES the den carpet, so I've been not sweating it!

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  2. Funder, my husband hates the den carpet too! The plan is to eventually replace it with tile... but that's waaaaay down the project priority list, so I imagine we're stuck with that carpet for a couple of years at least. Bummer.

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