Its been a busy few months and some of our hard work is starting to take shape. The theme of late has been windows, windows and more windows. And I suppose a few doors too. While we aren’t quite ready to install, we are proud of the progress we’ve made so far, especially considering this is a brand new experience for us.

We made great progress with the siding, and except for a few details the house is pretty much wrapped up. Although it was a bit slower, we made the decision to stain and paint as we fit. Even the back of the siding was stained. I would highly recommend this method to anyone installing new siding. It provides complete coverage on your overlaps, so bare wood won’t be exposed when the wood shrinks, there is no need for masking or delicate brush work where two colors meet, and no need to fuss around on ladders or scaffolding. Once its up, its up and you can move on to the next project.

Although its been a little stressful, making windows has also been a lot of fun. Its one of the projects I was most excited about and I’ve already learned tons. This is one area where I can apply my training in traditional joinery, to make something strong, long lasting, and functional, and yet still inexpensive and simple enough to build with a small set of hand tools. Sure there have been many hours invested. Currently over 65 hours in the window sashes alone. But a lot of that has been time spent researching and learning so we make the right decisions at every turn.

At this point, we’ve got 8 of our 9 windows fully built, some of them are fit to their casements and hinges hung. Amy has been sourcing used glass from some folks near by, and cutting each piece to fit. Next we will be priming our sashes, glazing in the glass, painting the sashes, and then installation is right around the corner!!