Between shorter (and greyer and rainier) days over the past few months, and trying to find a balance between working on the house and preserving what little sanity we have left, progress has been slower than ideal, but we’re closer and closer to a liveable house every day. There is a light at the end of the window project tunnel, and we’re rapidly approaching it! Since our last post, we have completed the 8 windows we started (with a couple left to hang, and some minor hardware installation to do), as well as completing and installing the 3 small shed doors and the back door! We also put up gutters to help keep rain from finding its way inside, and to prepare for future water catchment systems.

The house looks so much nicer the more plastic and plywood we get to take off!

We took a New Year’s Eve trip to Home Depot to buy gutters, and got them up that weekend!

Fitting windows was a long process, with lots of minute adjustments and plenty of measuring twice before cutting once.

Glazing the windows was a process in itself. Neither of us had ever done it before, and there is very little information on the internet about it (probably because most people buy their windows premade these days…). After a bunch of research Raphael purchased a quart of Sarco Type M Multiglaze online, but halfway through glazing the windows we realized a quart wasn’t enough so we had to stall the rest of the windows until the next quart got shipped. To glaze windows you have to roll this gooey sticky substance into a thin roll and set it in the rabbet all the way around the window, then gently smoosh the glass onto it to spread it out, and then place some glazing points around the edges to hold the glass in, then flip the window and trim the excess putty. After that you have to press a bigger roll of putty all around on top of the glass and then cut away all the extra to create a nice smooth surface. I was pretty good at all the smooshing, but Raphael was definitely the expert in the smoothing, and while they look a little rustic (hey, we’re not professionals) I think they look pretty darn great!

Getting the windows painted and installed was the last step. When the paint was wet we were a little worried about the brightness of the yellow, but after the second coat had dried it was exactly what we wanted – a happy, sunshiney yellow. And the sun even came out for a bit for us to install them!

Oh, and we also bought a wood stove! Next we move on to insulation, wiring and plumbing…