We’re back from our weekend at Lake Pleasant and it was great. Even the 5 hour drive wasn’t that bad because the weather was amazing. We drove out Saturday morning and back Monday so Sunday was our full day there and we packed it all in. We played with our niece, we relaxed, we ate (a lot!) and I went fishing.
Ryan was laughing at me because I decided to take up fishing as a hobby 🙂 I borrowed a pole and some tackle for the weekend and in the evening friday i took the kayak out by myself and fished for an hour or so. I caught two fish – a whitefish (about 7″) and a pickerel (8″), neither large enough to keep but still fun!. I caught both with just a worm although I did try out some other tackle without any luck. And both were easy to release.
Now we’re back home and I took today off of work to relax and get the house in order. Laundry, cleaning etc. Although it’s so darn hot out I’m dying just sitting in the livingroom. I also need to change my oil and a headlight on the car – maybe it will cool off in the afternoon when it’s shady in the car park area and I can do it then.
In preparation for camping this weekend I decided to do some baking and with the numerous raspberries begging to be picked I decided to make up some muffins. I made blueberry and raspberry muffins. The mulberries were dwindling so I could only get a few and put them on top of the raspberry muffins but I picked almost a pint of raspberries from the garden! Fresh raspberries from the garden! Raspberry and blueberry muffins getting ready for the oven First batch of blueberry muffins ready
They were delish!
I’ve been a little busy lately and completely missed the fact that my daisies are blooming!!! I was jumping up and down when I noticed finally. I grabbed a few cell phone pictures on the way to work since it’s my only daylight time in the garden.
Daisies and Valerium blooming (mystery plants solved!)
It turns out it was actually 3 plants! The Becky Daisies and the Valerium are the two noticeable ones. But coming up out of the valerium is this plant – is it a Rudbeckia/Black Eyed Susan – I don’t think so?? Another mystery plant
And finally a sneak peak of one of the treats we’ve been enjoying – our raspberries are very plentiful. We can’t keep up and I’m not home enough in the evenings to pick what’s ripe so a lot of them are overripe now. The mulberry tree is also plentiful and we’ve been really enjoying those as well! Raspberries!
Plans next year to have more time and use the berries for preserves or something!
Whew… for some reason today feels worse than yesterday humidity wise, maybe because we never really got enough rain yesterday to break it. With a quick trip to home depot to start the day we got to work around 11 removing the window and getting the new one installed.
The original window was a little wider than the cupola windows but we decided to make it the same width, I don’t remember how large the next size up would have been but we would have had to adjust the rough in so this was our best option.
The original window (how we left it last night).Some extra framing since the window is smaller (need to nail to something)Had to cut the sills since they came too longAnd the window is in!A view of the outsideAnd another view
Finished in just 2 hours which is pretty good since I was feeling pretty lazy (humidity probably). So we’re just sitting down to some home made pizza now. The last window in the livingroom has to be borded up and re-sided since we’re removing it. We don’t have enough wood (need a few more 2×6’s) so it will probably not happen today. Today I may work on stripping some more trim for the gym or something since it’s raining out again.
We finally have a full weekend to work on the house and we got right to work today. We installed the last 2 windows in the cupola in the livingroom. They were a little more work than the first three, the header had to be replaced on these so the windows would fit.
We decided to quit at 6 tonight and relax the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we’ll replace the last window and hopefully close up the other. The livingroom windows will be complete then!
Windows before we started todayOld windows removedNew headers (just needed the extra half inch for window placement adjustment)Raised up the bottom to match the othersOutside all preppedAnd the new windows are in!A wider look a the cupolaThe new windows from the outside
Now we’re settling in for the evening, I’m watching Emma and Ryan’s working on his laptop (he got a new harddrive and windows 7 a few months ago and hasn’t yet had time to install it!).
I’ve been a little busy with work lately (read that: really busy). However I do make sure and take a little down time to read before I go to bed (even if my only break to read is between midnight and 1am which means I’m exhausted the next morning).
What am I reading – a new series Aimee loaned me by Mary Balogh. Some more Victorian romances, something like comfort food to my tired brain after a very very long day at work.
Hopefully life will resume this weekend since I try not to work on weekends.
Pictures of the finished 3 windows! From the inside
From the back sideFrom the front side
I can’t believe it but it’s actually hotter today than yesterday somehow. Ryan headed into the office around 11 and I got the demo area cleaned up again, some wood we had moved out of the way for windows is back where it’s being stored and I vacuumed. Then I swept up and cleaned up the porch area a bit. I may spend most of the day doing some projects in the basement because it’s cooler down there with the dehumidifier running. I also have some outside projects I can do…
Today we decided to tackle the windows project. This project includes a total of 9 windows to be replaced (in 2 rooms) and one window to be removed and sided. Since this is a huge project we’re doing it in stages, starting with the windows on the porch which we can do just the two of us. These large windows are quite heavy but Ryan was able to carry them out and put them in since they’re not high off the porch floor.
We took a ton of pictures so I’m going to let the pictures tell the story – unfortunately it was too dark by the time we cleaned up to take pictures of the final product so I’ll post those tomorrow. Here’s our day…
Taking out window number 1
We started with the decision to do 2 windows toward the back of the cupola to start.
All exterior boxes removed and window out
We had to remove all the decorative window box wood – we’ll have to redo this design with new wood.
Building up the window a little
Our new windows are a little shorter (on purpose – we’d like to be able to fit outlets under the windows), so we had to build up the bottom a bit.
Building up window number 2
While Ryan built up the first window I started taking out the second window.
Window number 22 windows getting prepped
Both windows all stripped down at this point and Ryan built up the second window bottom.
Ready for ice shield
At this point I got started cutting felt paper and ice shield to install.
starting with some felt paper on the bottomWindow number one almost prepped
We got both windows just about prepped before installing either.
Felt paper along the top
Awwww… someone’s walking on the outside walls!!!
Window number 1 in!
The first window went pretty smoothly. Of course it didn’t have to line up with anything, just be level so it was the easiest of them all.
Window 1!
And what a pretty window it is 🙂 At this point we decided to order some pizza for dinner so we could keep working and we also decided we could manage a third window before dark so we started the demo of the third window.
Window 2 and 3 built up
It went pretty quickly since we had the hang of it at this point.
Side view of window 2 and 3
We got the felt paper and ice shield up on the third pretty quickly.
Window number 3felt paper across the top - ready for windows!
At this point we installed the second and third windows. They were slightly more difficult because they have to be level AND the sills all have to be level with each other since they will connect around the cupola in the window box design. I think we managed okay and we got all the tools picked up before dark.
Unfortunately we won’t be able to continue tomorrow because Ryan has to go into the office for the day but I will post the window pictures tomorrow and whatever project I decide to tackle by myself…Â so much to choose from!
When I got home Friday night Ryan had been hard at it already. He wanted to get the porch ceiling removed before we did windows today since the boards were in the way. The ceiling really needed to be replaced anyway so he pulled down the section around the cupola and we took the wood to the dump first thing this morning (first thing = 10am) 🙂 Ceiling removed All gone all ready for windows now
No house progress because I was sick the beginning of the week and not up for anything but sleep and some reading. I’m hoping tonight to get home at a decent time and fit in some house work since I got in to work so early. I’m psyched for the weekend, so many projects to choose from and the windows just begging to be put in!
