Musical Windows

Exterior trim

With the metal installed on the shop roof and on the chicken coop, it was time to finish up the exterior trim on the shop. The actual wood that is being used for the exterior trim was originally installed as the roof sheathing over the front portion of the shop. The boards were rough sawn old growth yellow pine and were still in decent enough shape to be reused. After they were removed from the roof, my dad helped take all the nails out so they could be cut without hitting nails.

It’s a barn!

Bob started off installing the cornerboards on all of the exterior corners of the shop. Each exterior corner gets a pair of trim boards – one board on each side of the corner. This will help with waterproofing the corner and will protect the exposed ends of the siding at the corner. With the cornerboards installed, he then turned his sights to the sliding shop door. He installed the trim around the perimeter of the door and then as an “X” on the door. It is now a barn door! Lastly, he installed a drip ledge over the top of the door to help keep rain off of the track and from getting inside the shop.

The window story

With the barn door done, it was time to trim out the windows. Here’s the backstory with the windows. As we finished out the front bedroom (bedroom 3) that was originally the “sleeping porch”, we used off the shelf windows to infill the 3 screen openings. They are OK windows, not great, not terrible. However, what we found is since that room (and those windows) face US-27, there was still a lot of road noise coming into the room. As a solution, we ordered impact windows to replace these three windows as well as to replace additional windows on the back of the house which faces US-27. The heavier duty construction of impact windows also does a lot for blocking sound. Once the three windows in this bedroom were replaced with the impact windows, we planned to use the original 3 windows in the shop.

Wrong windows installed

Well, we as part of deciding to move up here, we remodeled the shop so that I could have my shop here and keep working. As part of that, we needed windows. So, for the time being, we installed the impact windows in the shop. Well, we couldn’t trim out the shop windows until the proper windows were in place. It was time for the window swap. As part of this work, the awning over the three bedroom windows needed to be removed. To remove the awning, the rest of the shingles on the side of the house needed to come off to access the awning’s mounting flange. That was the starting point for this.

Awning removed

Bob took off enough shingles to access the nails holding on the awning. With all but two of the nails removed, I gave him a hand removing it. Let’s just say I’m glad nobody got the removal on video because it wasn’t pretty. But it came off. With it out of the way, Bob removed one of the impact windows and then one of the bedroom windows and confirmed the fit. It fit. So he proceeded to swap out the windows one by one. After he was done, he put some flashing tape over the flanges on the outside.

Trimming the windows

The next day, with the proper windows installed in the shop, Bob was able to resume with the exterior trim. He got the windows trimmed out and then started working on the 3 impact windows. He infilled in the siding up to the windows and then started on the window trim. By next week, he should have the trim complete.

Caulking

Since much of the exterior trim was up on the shop, Oceana got started prepping for paint (stain). The first step was caulk. Now, much of this old wood was warped, twisted, waney, cracked, etc. This means there’s bigger gaps than with nice new wood so there’s more effort and caulk involved in getting it sealed up. Oceana handled it like a champ. She got all of the caulking complete and then came back with a brush with white stain on it and brushed on a coat where the trim met the house. This will protect the caulk and keep it from turning yellow. Unpainted caulk will yellow in just a few months. The next step is going to be to paint all of the trim blue but that’s going to have to wait until next week.

Is it quieter?

We went through a bunch of extra work (and cost) to install the impact windows in the bedroom. Our original goal was to reduce the road noise. Did it work? Absolutely. It worked really well actually. You’ll still hear big trucks engine braking but most of the normal traffic noise has disappeared. Now I’m looking forward to getting the impact windows installed in the back bedroom and across the back of the house.

Odds and Ends

Here’s a pic of Oceana’s garden. This thing is going crazy! Those pumpkins are going to be huge. Also, here’s a picture of a teak deck that I’m working on for an 80′ yacht. It is a challenging build for sure!

That’s all, folks

That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for following along on our crazy journey.