Still Nothing Going On

Yeah… delayed again. Will it never end?

No. Not really. I lied.

Yes, things are happening. The contractors arrived on Monday morning and quite a bit has changed since then. More on that below. But first, let’s deal with the really big news:

The Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Some of you might have noted I didn’t mention this last week. Here in the Great White North where the British monarch is still technically head of state in some weird way, it’s a big deal. My own opinions about it are complex.

First, I have no need of royalty in any way, shape, or form. Maybe it’s a result of my American upbringing, but I don’t trust anyone in power, and I very specifically don’t trust people who gain power simply by being born. The level of entitlement in such cases is appalling.

On the other hand, I recognize the British monarchy has been a source of tradition, stability and (at some level) pride for a long time. And yet that same monarchy has engaged in all kinds of behaviors and supported policies that are clearly awful. Colonialism, anyone?

So I am of mixed mind, as usual. We have a holiday of sorts on Monday to mourn her passing and watch the funeral if we are so inclined. I don’t think I will be paying attention, but I understand if others do.

On to the Windows

As I said, Monday saw the arrival of the contractors, and they started with the downstairs windows on the front of the house:

We’ve only seen a small crew so far — just two guys — but when you know what you are doing and have the right tools & materials you can make significant progress.

Those three photos show them removing the old windows, the opening with the first new window installed, and then all four installed. Trim remains to be done.

I won’t bore you with images of every window they worked on. That first day they installed eight windows: the four seen above, two more in the guest bedroom, and two in the laundry room.

The next day they tackled the big row of windows along the back of the house:

The first photo shows them removing the big living room windows. Five in a row, all 65" tall and 43" wide, give or take. The second photo shows the installed replacements — open! — with one little window waiting for its turn to be installed. The third photo shows the three large windows they replaced in the conservatory. The door visible beyond them will be removed and replaced with a window (and siding, etc) later. Beyond that is a laundry room window.

That ended day two: eight more windows installed, and those were tricky. The big ones were a lot of work, and nothing is square or straight or level in the conservatory. The installation there took much longer than expected as they dealt with those issues.

Day three arrived and we were down to a crew of just one. But he got up on the roof and replaced five more windows, including one that is tucked into a corner in a particularly awkward way:

At the end of the day all of those were water tight again, which was good because it rained lightly all day on Thursday.

Again we were down to just one guy, but which one changed. (So far it has been Stu and Jon. Stu was gone on Wednesday to deal with several business and family things, and Jon was home with a sick child on Thursday.) As I said, it rained on Thursday so Stu was soaked by the time he left. He trimmed out the five upstairs windows, but it was very finicky work, combined with a flashing change. Here’s a photo from Thursday evening:

If you have sharp eyes you might note a difference in the flashing used above the trim on the two rightmost windows. That is being remedied as I write this.

Final caulking will wait for Monday when things have dried out.

Today (Friday) Stu is back and finalizing the trim on those two upstairs windows and then will move on to trim out others. Jon should be here soon to assist and/or replace the one remaining window downstairs in the back of the house. Oh, and it rained overnight and more this morning. Fun.

The plan for Monday is to bring in scaffolding to let them get at the windows that are upstairs without easy access. The plan is to setup the scaffolding, replace the windows they can reach, trim those out, then move the scaffolding on to the next location. I think they will need the scaffolding in either four or five different locations, but I am not sure. Regardless, it is possible that by the end of next week all the regular windows will be installed and trimmed. I doubt they will get to the sliding glass door next week, but who knows.

Other tasks to do include:

• Skirting the bottom siding all the way around the house to deal with dry rot issues that result where there are no eaves.
• Replacing a door in the back with a window and siding.
• Removing a side door to the garage and replacing it with wall.
• Replacing an existing door to the garage with a new one.
• Painting the whole house if the weather cooperates.
• A couple of other nits to be contemplated.

In contractor terms, nothing here is all that big or difficult, but I am not expert enough in these things to do them right. And even if I learned the details and tricks I would need extra hands to do some things well, and a long, long time to get them all done. Much better to get people who know what they are doing to handle it for us.

So far we are happy with the progress.

As a reward for reading this far, I give you a photo of a pine (or spruce?) tree of some kind I found around the corner:

I was fascinated by the colour change in the needles. I think the light grey-green ones are new growth while the dark green are from last year or before.

That’s all the news. All the best to you and yours. May your projects get done!