Thread: Some home improvements

Tweet

My wife and I are expecting another little one in about a month. Maybe sooner. My wife has never been able to have her own room dedicated to the new baby for any of our kids. I'm hoping to change that now. We have a room attached to our bedroom that was called a sun room. This room has/had 7 windows in it. They all leaked air mostly, all but 1 would not open due to being painted several times, and needed replaced. When I had some other windows replaced a while back, I got estimates for these to be replaced as well. $390 each x7 was a big pill to swallow. Well, I had an idea. I told my wife we would just remove the windows, box the openings, and frame them like a regular wall. I'm going to insulate everywhere I can, and we will dry wall the walls. They currently have some particle board paneling on them that is ugly. On the outside I'll paint all the window trim brown except for the bottom board to follow the rest of the house, and add shake shingles over the plywood and try to make it blend in. That will be the tough part because the shingles are aged and someone has already painted brown over them. This will kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Get her, her baby room, and save me about $2000 on replacing windows.

We are putting 2 windows in this room still. I got lucky last Friday when I went tot Menards. I had 2 cheapy windows picked out and my daughter wanted to go walk through the doors at the display area. I figured what's the harm in that? We get over there and low and behold, they are tearing down the display and the windows in it are on clearance. We're talking $300 Jeld-wen windows. There were 3 laying there and 2 were the same size, close to what I had on my cart. The latches were a little different, but for $125 for the pair I wasn't going to complain. I got way better quality windows for just a little more than what the cheapy Larson windows I was going to get.

You can see we already have 1 installed. I'm waiting to do the last one until we get the dry wall hoisted up into the room. I think it's the best chance of getting it up there without cutting the sheets into half sheets because nothing that long will make it up our stairs. Hopefully in the next 3 weeks I can get this room done before Ivvy gets here.

The first pic is when we first bought the house to give an idea of the old windows.

I'm probably going to have to rent a scaffolding or a really big ladder to do the shingles. It is a ways up there. My 14' ladder will put me about half way up a window when the ladder is on the deck. That won't work when I'm doing the side that the deck doesn't go around.

Congrats to you both!! I told you that you're an over-achiever. LOL..

Now get back to work on the new nursery.... oh, just bundle up the 40 or the vette and I'll swing by with the trailer and take'em off your hands.... I'll return 'em in about 20 years when you're ready to have more time.... HAH!

Yeah, I was thinking the same, now how many little ones will you have to fit child safety seats into the rear of the Tudor to sit safely ? I amazed you have time to rest and sleep with all these " extra jobs " you find time for. I have heard from a very good source that if one slows down from a very active lifestyle, one can cut short their lifespan drastically, and that comes fro a long time friend who is 73 years young and her and her husband still foster little babies that have been removed from their Mothers for one reason or another. Lorraine ( my friend ) has an excellent reputation for caring for shaken babies after they are realised for hospital.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Congrats to you both!! I told you that you're an over-achiever. LOL..

Now get back to work on the new nursery.... oh, just bundle up the 40 or the vette and I'll swing by with the trailer and take'em off your hands.... I'll return 'em in about 20 years when you're ready to have more time.... HAH!

Thanks. But you'll have to talk to the kids about the Vette. They don't even like to hear the words sell or get rid of when it comes to the hot rod, the orange truck, the "race" car, or any tractors. Plus, the 40 doesn't take up much room. Haha

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Yeah, I was thinking the same, now how many little ones will you have to fit child safety seats into the rear of the Tudor to sit safely ? I amazed you have time to rest and sleep with all these " extra jobs " you find time for. I have heard from a very good source that if one slows down from a very active lifestyle, one can cut short their lifespan drastically, and that comes fro a long time friend who is 73 years young and her and her husband still foster little babies that have been removed from their Mothers for one reason or another. Lorraine ( my friend ) has an excellent reputation for caring for shaken babies after they are realised for hospital.

We have 1 daughter (6), and 2 sons. 4 and 5. Yeah, the tudor is definitely out if we are all going now. My wife is wanting me to build her a 48 or so Willys wagon for the next family vehicle. But that will be after the 40 is drive able. First she wanted a woody model A. I'm still trying to talk her back into that.

Wow, that is exceptional on Lorraine and her husband's actions. Tell her Thanks from us over here! My friend and his wife have adopted 3 children and 2 of which have different issues. It can be a rough situation for the kids and parents.

Wow I don't know what it was about this thread but I must be getting soft, my eyes started getting pretty watery. I'm so happy for you Ryan for your family and a wife who you obviously love. Thanks to all who help the hurting kids in this world to give them a chance they otherwise may never have gotten. With every new birth, it's a sign that God hasn't given up on us yet. Sorry for getting so deep but It's been one of those years and this just hit me.

If you were near to me, I would give you a Peachtree (AKA caddilac) double pane two-panel window sitting in my shed, from a minor kitchen renovation.

When I rebuilt my house, I grabbed up all the 'reject' windors at home quarters. They were built to wring size, but I just built to suit the windows. I saved big $$.

I have considered replacing the rest of the windows in this house myself. I really wasn't impressed how the ones I had done turned out and it isn't all that hard to get the old ones out. The finish work is the toughest part IMO. We'll see if I can find some reasonably nice windows first.

I'm not sure what brand the windows I had replaced are, but these Jeld-wen ones are much nicer. Kind of ticks a person off.

Nice work. Doing your own home repairs can definitely save some real $$.

Congrats on the coming birth! Great job on the addition!

Rich

Originally Posted by Driver50x

Nice work. Doing your own home repairs can definitely save some real $$.

Yeah, for sure. I try to do every thing I can. This is our first house and I have a lot of learning to do though.

Originally Posted by RichB

Congrats on the coming birth! Great job on the addition!

Rich

Thanks Rich!

This past weekend we made great progress. Even though I swear we made 3 trips to Menards getting supplies. I got all the window boxes studded for the drywall, we ripped out the old paneling and found R-13 insulation. We are trying to improve the house and reduce wasted energy so we replaced all the old insulation with R-19. The window deletes have R-19 in them as well. A very good friend of mine came over Saturday afternoon, and Sunday, and we got all the dry wall up, and the last window frame made and put the last window in. We saved a lot of time by putting the dry wall up through the last window after I removed it. Other wise we would have had to truck them up the stairs. We would have had to cut each sheet in half to get them up there and that would have made a lot of work then and later during mudding etc. There are 10 sheets of dry wall in the little room. Installing the last window was a pain. We finally got it level but it looks out of place looking from the out side because that addition has settled over time. It was put on in 1950. Once I get the trim painted brown and get the shake shingles on, it should look normal. Now we'll be taping and mudding to get ready to get it painted soon with any luck.

My wife has decided to go with a light green color for the room. It's called Lagoon if I remember correctly. We got a new crib thanks to her parents, and it is Lagoon. My wife is going to paint the end walls lagoon, the floor, ceiling, and the rest of the walls white. She picked up a rug to put on the floor for now. It is sort of light brown, tan, and creme striped. We are building some floating shelves out of the old window trim and painting them lagoon too. Hopefully the lagoon end walls look ok. If it were me I'd just paint it all white with some fake hard wood floors but I don't have any taste in out fitting houses.

We've already noticed a really huge improvement in sound quality, or lack of hearing the a hole dogs behind us barking, and the temps are more in check with out all the leaking windows. Before in the summer that room was stupid hot, and in the winter, it was stupid cold. It was a storage/junk collector and a wasted room. Not anymore. Also before, if you were in the sun room looking at someone on the deck, you could carry a conversation with them through the shut windows. Not ideal at all. Haha

Lookin' good there Ryan! Muddin' drywall I always equate to bodyfiller and all the sanding!!!! A friend of ours can use a spray bottle and the spreading tool and level the mud so there's no need to sand after. I'm not even close to being able to do that. ROFL>...

Keep at it buddy, soon you'll be in the lagoon!