We Bought A House

Well I will just go out on a limb and say this flat out – winter stinks!

The cold and frigid temperatures makes me feel so lazy and not wanting to accomplish anything with our house projects. How about you? Do you, my faithful readers, feel the winter pain too?

 Any amount of time in my garage is enough to make your nose run and the fingers lose functioning. Ever try to pick up little nails with frozen fingertips?

 I can report that my wife and I put a down payment on our new second floor windows! We opted for a locally-made product from Gratz, PA near Harrisburg. We looked at them in the YBC showroom and they met all of our criteria for efficiency and appearance. They tilt-in for easy cleaning, are double-hung, double-pane glass and very insulated.

 Unfortunately, the downside of purchasing windows during a pandemic is that manufacturing is about 12 – 16 weeks out. Fortunately though that brings the timeline for windows to be installed to April or May when it better be warm enough outside!

 There are many personal benefits to purchasing our new windows. 

 I can see clearly now. Over time glass breaks down and becomes wavy when looking through it. The glass in our current windows is as old as the house itself and is very wavy when looking out.

1. Easy cleaning with the grill on the inside. We chose double-hung windows with the grills on the top and bottom sandwiched between the glass pieces. No more will I have to wash 6 individual pieces of glass top and bottom!
2. The heat won’t escape anymore. My wife says she cannot feel her fingertips right now, and we are even sitting in the addition of the house that was built in the 80s, south-facing no less!
3. Summer sun. The heat from the summer sun will not roast the rooms anymore. The new windows are insulated and very slightly tinted, so the sun will not bake us from the inside out.

Aside from the new windows, we are preparing to completely rip out the rest of the second floor: rebuild, relocate closets, level floors, level ceilings, and insulate!

 I feel like this winter slump is only there to prepare me for the incoming warmer months and days of rebuilding. Don’t get me wrong – I am very excited by all of this. It will just be a lot of coordinating to get the work complete.

 Demolition is a very dusty, dirty job but extremely rewarding when the walls are open and you can see what is hiding within.

 We have a couple of “bulges” in some of the rooms on the second floor. We cannot tell if they are oversized wood beams covered in plaster and lath, or plaster and lath coming off of the walls.

 Only time will tell and soon we will know the secrets that lie within these walls!