Part 1- Window framing and no installation.

All the moon and stars lined up on Saturday to tear out the original windows, frame up the wall, and finally get the new windows installed. The weather called for a sunny 25 degrees and no wind. Perfect for opening up a big whole in the wall and exposing your house to the elements. I also had Plan B. Sunday was suppose to be nice also. Okay so I have 2 whole days to get this project done. More than enough time even if I have never done any of this before.

So here is what the storm windows looked like before:

All these are windows are basically single pane storm windows. The bottom left window is Plexiglas that was broken by this:

Finn (a.k.a. Tasmanian Devil, Marley in Marley and Me, Hooch from Turner and Hooch) While he looks innocent enough here,  you can trust me when I say he is NOT! See the zipper on the cushion on the right side? Well that cusion is turned around because Finn ate the couch.

Once we got out the storm windows and a the rest of the aluminium framing that was put in with 492 pounds of silicon. No shit. No less than 492 pounds. This is what it looked like:

What you cannot see in this picture is, The bottom sill was 4 1/2 inches so I had bought a bunch of 2x6's to rip down to meet the size of the bottom sill. I also picked up a few 2x4's just because you never know when you are going to need a few 2x4's. Well once I got the old windows cleaned out I could see that the bottom sill was rotted on both ends and I didn't feel comfortable using it. Soooooooo here is what the it looks like when you tear out the whole wall:



And here is what it looks like when you run out of daylight:

Remember Plan B? Well I was in full Plan B mode. It is now Sunday morning and I am going to start framing up "the hole" but now I want use 2x4's not the 2x6's I already have so it is off to Lowes I go and they don't open until 8am. It is 9 by the time I get back home and start working. I did get the framing done as you could see here:

And here is how my day ended. Not with windows but with more OSB:

I am still pretty happy with my progress and I know it always seems like "two steps forward and one step back" but I have no expectation of time frame and it is all a learning experience. Oh yeah! My helpers were my 19yo daughter, Cheeo and Big L the 15yo son. All of us with zero experience! :-)