Doors and Windows

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Putting in all the doors and windows, especially those on the second story, was not easy. It's kind of a 2 person job - somebody outside on a ladder checking the window's position, with someone inside shimming it out and getting it right. Or somebody outside just holding the window and keeping it from falling out.

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Rachael, though only 11, did a pretty good job of holding a window from the inside and doing any necessary shimming. The rough openings were pretty good, so little shimming was necessary. Like a friend of mine said who's also a contractor, and put in hundreds of doors and windows, though plumb and level's important, what's most important is that the doors and windows operate properly.

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I had a few 'new construction' windows from Home Depot with fins, the upper story 2x3 sliders, that were very easy - outside of the fact I was high up a ladder. The fins around the window are pushed flush up against the wall, and nailed every other hole or so with large-head galvanized roofing nails. Then you're done. Pretty simple. Though I did keep forgetting to caulk behind the fin before I put the window in - and caulked it after. It's amazing how much caulk you need for doors and windows . . . buy it by the case.

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The only hairy part was when Rachael passed the window out the hole to me while I stood high up the ladder, and had to fit in there from the outside. I'd framed the rough openings pretty tight. The 2x3 sliders weren't too heavy . . . but the 3x4 windows were beasts.

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Unfortunately most of my windows did not have fins, and were screwed through the frame into the rough opening. They had little fins, almost a lip, to go over the trim, then a 3/4" slot behind the lip for the trim to fit into - so the window was set 3/4" out from the wall. They're really replacement windows, to go in flush against the siding. But since my siding isn't in, I have to estimate.

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The 3x4 windows were rather cheap at $89 a pop, double glazed, argon filled, etc., but they didn't operate that great even before I put them in. The single-hung windows were hard to shut, and when fully opened, didn't want to hang level. So it's hard to check for good performance once they're installed. I did the best I could. It was probably no surprise such windows ended up in a surplus store.

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One window was a definite replacement window from Home Depot, with the expandable header at the top. It was really a mis-buy . . . we were looking for a certain size, and didn't realize it wasn't 'new construction'. But since Home Depot is an hour away, I thought I'd try to make it work.

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What I did was put a large piece of flashing to shed water away from the sill, since there's no fin or lip:

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But the more I messed with it, and talked to builder friends, they all advised I try to exchange it and get a 'new construction' window instead. And that's what I did. Home Depot gave me no problems at all when it came to returns and exchanges. I guess if you look at the outrageous cost of the windows, the cost of returns is built in.

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As far as the tarpaper, I used a double overlapping layer method that Patty downloaded from This Old House. It might have been overkill, but I had plenty of extra roofing felt - why not?

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Here several windows are in:
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The three at the rear are the giant 3x4 heavy windows - very, very heavy. The ones on the lower story I've put up a homemade drip edge over, made from flashing.

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The windows on the left side of the building are the kitchen windows, a 3x3 in the same style as the 3x4's with an interior grid, single-hung . . . and the large window with the cranked-out panes is our best window, a wood frame, vinyle clad, like 3x5 . . . a great find at the surplus store and only $109. I had to countersink screws through the wood frame into the rough opening and shim it perfectly, so I didn't pull the frame apart - but it went well, the panes crank shut and lock properly.

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The front door we got from a salvage place. It came already hung, brand new, fiberglass, with brick mold on the outside, for about $190, free delivery. I tried using the This Old House method for installing it - but it was too complicated. So I followed the advice of a contractor. My floor was dead level so this was a big help. Once I got the door shimmed out where I wanted it, I fastened the brick mold to the sheathed walls with finish nails, which were then countersunk.

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The disaster was when I walked in and tried to open the door. I couldn't get it to open. I'd removed screws from the trim piece over the door, but missed a screw at the jamb, right where the door hardware goes, screwing the door shut. It was an incredibly stupid mistake that could only happen to someone that's never put in a door before [i.e. me], and even then I think rarely. I had to choose between prying out the brick mold, removing the door, and taking the screw out - in other words starting over (probably what I should have done), or cut the screw with a reciprocating saw.

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Cutting the screw was not pleasant. The blade constantly jumped into the gasket sealing the door, tearing it at one spot, and the shaft of a screw is incredibly strong, nothing like a nail. It took forever to cut through. I opened the door, did more shimming, then screwed through the jamb into the rough opening. I tried to hide the screws behind the gasket in the jamb, which worked well.

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Installing this door was already a nightmare because I'd actually had to move the door opening over 6" from its original position, to center it under the window opening above. Then when I came to put in the expensive Shlaag hardware in the door, I found my old cut screw was in the way of fastening the hardware to the mortise in the jamb. So I had to drive the screw in at a steep angle - ugly. Then the hardware itself was missing a piece (a critical pin in the lever handle assembly), and I had to drive all the way out to Home Depot to exchange it.

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After all this, here's a photo of the door in from inside:
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It brings a lot of light into the kitchen.

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A week after the door was in and done, we found the door would lock itself if we turned the knob the wrong way while shutting it. I inspected this thoroughly, and sure enough there's something wrong with the knob assembly inside the door - it's not disengaging right. But there's no way I'm taking all this hardware out and driving to Home Depot again, and it's getting to the point that the holes where screws need to go are getting stripped out and I won't be able to reinstall it. So I've decided to half-ignore the problem, and later just remove the defective part and send it to Schlaag to be retooled or replaced. Supposedly it all comes with a lifetime warranty. Needless to say, it's all very irritating. Some days as a novice owner-builder, I'm proud of what I've accomplished. And on others, my lack of experience shows.

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The pre-hung exterior french doors were far more difficult to put in, just the size and weight alone, no brick mold, etc. And as usual, once I'd plumbed up the hinges on one side, and shimmed and plumbed the other, the doors didn't meet right in the middle at all - touching at the top, huge gap at the bottom. I guess they weren't hung right in the first place.
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I did the best I could to shim the bottom in, pull the jambs out at the top, even going so far as to insert cardboard between the hinge and the jamb on the bottom at one side to lessen the gap - this was the advice of a friend who's put in a ton of doors (the cardboard's not visible). The finished installation was fine, looked good, the doors operated well, and I guess I give myself a B- overall. I've got a lot to learn when it comes to hanging doors (hanging windows also for that matter):
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Here several more windows are in:

One of the fixed glass windows in the triptych had water damage - not just condensation, but a pool of water between the panes. We'd stored the windows outside when we'd first got them, before putting them in the pumphouse. That obviously was a bad idea. But Builder's Surplus in Atlanta was not only able to locate the exact same window for us, they exchanged it for free! It just took a while to get the window.

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Here's a shot of the cabin behind the sunflowers:

Here's the garden, as of late June:

Here is the barn, with most of the tents removed. We no longer need them for storage. The grass has just been mowed - the driveway's settled in nicely:

Here's the fireplace, near the pool. We use it as a place to hang out and set dishes and towels:

Here's Brooke washing dishes:

The dogs hanging out, Mishka and Annie:

In general they get along well, and Mishka of course wants to play constantly. Annie's all-night barking has still not stopped.

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Here Rachael's trying to train them with treats:

Brooke's found a turtle:

I find 2 box turtles down by the creekbed one morning and bring them up for the girls to play with. Turtles would make great pets. But we have to keep Mishka away from them. He'll bite hard over them so they're locked in their shells - that happened once camping up on Pigeon mountain. Very sad.

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Here are our blueberries, the grass mowed, the weeds kept back with decaying boards, and little blocks used to keep the weeds down and hold in moisture. It's not the best mulch certainly, but it's what I have an abundance of at the moment:

Here's the area in front of the cabin, our new 'front yard', which I reclaimed from the weeds and saplings with the mower. To the left are our autumn olives I planted over the winter which have done fabulously well. They're already miniature trees, with stout trunks:

Here is the barn, all cleaned out, the gazebo empty, the area sort of abandoned for the moment, as we now spend all our time in and around the cabin:

We've got to get a roof over this framing ASAP. That's the next step, before I do another thing with the cabin. But for now we're out of money, same old story, and our time up here is drawing to a close.
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