Windows then Joists

I got out of work a little late and when I got home I realized a guy was coming over and would be walking through the whole house and we had baby toys, dishes and other stuff everywhere so I started picking up. Heath and Pumpkin got home right after me and I stuck Pumpkin in the backpack and got back to work. It was not in too bad of shape so we were almost ready when the guy showed up and just had our bedroom as a mess.

This guy I’ve been talking about was from Anderson Windows and there to give us a free quote on new windows for our house. He was the first of many salesmen I expect to come quote us. He set up in the dining room and asked about what we were looking for and what we liked and didn’t like. I had not thought too much about it. I liked the look of our current windows fine my only concern was energy efficiency. We told him our main goal was lowering our electrical, gas and wood needs. Then we did a tour of the house and he measured all the windows and we talked about what we would like for the new windows and all the options came out. We found out in spots where there are two or three windows together it is cheaper to combine them into a big window like these guys up front.

I always thought 1 big window would be more expensive but at least through this company it is cheaper and I think looks a lot cooler.

So after the guy measured all 19 of our windows he sat down at his computer and did some math and filling out forms and laughing at Pumpkin noises as we fed her from the other room. Heath and I did dishes, made dinner and fed Pumpkin. Then we all got back together and he brought in a sample window and showed us all the ins and outs and compared his windows to other windows and showed us why they were superior.

They he gave us the quote and went over it a bit. Early on he told us he would not be the cheapest quote but his windows were way better then vinyl.  Anderson uses some combination of sawdust and glue that is 5x stronger then vinyl and he showed us all sorts of other grooves and seals and things that makes them superior. So the quote was pretty big and scary. We talked about some options and payment plans and various things then he headed out and promised to call back in 2 weeks to see how the other quotes went.

Heath and I were pretty starving by this point so warmed up our dinner and ate while watching Cops. Pumpkin had been sitting on our lap for most of the presentations so was eager to crawl around on the ground. While we were eating she scooted over to the coffee table and pulled her self up to her feet.

She immediately crashed and then tried it a few more times but ended up doing this kneeling thing once I got the camera ready. I engulfed my dinner then changed and headed to Jon’s. I got there at 7:30 and brought my camera and cell charger. His house is in a dead zone and always drains my battery so it was nice to have it plugged in and it was nice to get some pictures of our latest work.

If you didn’t read yesterday’s post or forgot I’ll remind you that we spent 12 hours Saturday taking out old and putting in new ceiling joists. It’s pretty easy to tell the new wood from the old wood in the pictures. Once we tore out a bunch of the joists and part of the beam we started here.

On the bottom left is a doorway into the future…
…bathroom and we put in that big 2×12 header above it. Above the header is the main beam that runs down the middle of the house and then on the bottom middle we have part of a wall between the kitchen and bathroom and living room. Above are the new joists sitting on the beam till we get to the far right. On the right is the opening between kitchen and living room and above is the super header that will be hidden above the ceiling.

I’m not sure why but I really like this big chunk of wood. It weighs a lot feels super sturdy and really opens up the area between the kitchen and living room. Here is a blurry shot from above, you can kind of see the 2 2×12 boards and the filler chipboard between them. Also note the strings that run above and perpendicular to it.

These strings are mule tape strap that we attached before removing the old joists and relied on for the roof not to crash when we took out the joists.

So last night we mostly just moved along putting in new joists, so cutting boards, measuring where they go and shooting nails into them with a nail gun and a fun little palm nailer that was a new tool for me.

Jon and I have got it pretty figured out now and made good progress. We got all the joists replaced that we had tore out then tore out 6 more old joists and replaced them, then called it a night.

You can see the old 2x4s are cracked and bowing down and the new 2x6s are sweet.We still have this much to do and plan to get it done on Wednesday night.

I got home a little before 10 and changed clothes and washed the sawdust out of my throat with a bowl of sherbet, talked to Heath a bit then went to sleep.

PS. If you know any tips or cool stuff about windows let me know.