Going into this weekend I was a little concerned with how much prep work we had to do before putting in the new windows but of course Ryan and my Dad surprised me and got it all done!

First – up went the scaffolding and then down came the aluminum siding which Dad cut and bundled into neat bundles which will be easy to recycle (much better than our previous method of just piling it up) 🙂

Scaffolding up

Aluminum siding down (around windows)

We finally got to see what they did to side the peaks we have – we were crossing our fingers for shingles – and YUP – shingles – they look awesome and they’re in really good shape so we can just clean them up and paint them when we put on the new siding below them!  Yeah!

Shingles! And yes we are missing a piece of glass in that attic window 🙂 It's on the todo list.

Next the wood siding had to come down and the old windows had to come out.  They actually did the 2 nursery windows on saturday and saved the top of the stairs window for sunday to remove.

Just finishing up Saturday night

Just before they put up the second piece of plywood

Next up was resizing the windows because we bought smaller windows so we could raise them up to make them a bit safer for the little one on the way.  These are in her room (and the top of the stairs) so safer is smarter 🙂  By Saturday night the two nursery windows were reframed and covered in plywood for the night.

What did I do while the guys did all that work?  I took nails out of the walls and cleaned up (constantly), plus I piled all the wood up that got thrown down and tried to keep nails out of the driveway.

Sunday Ryan finished taking off the rest of the cedar siding and took out the third window then Dad put in the new framing.

Third window almost ready (top of stairs).

The tar paper started going up and the windows started going in (the windows themselves go really fast once all the prep is done so I didn’t get a lot of in progress pictures!

First window in!

And here’s what we look like this morning…

From the outside - ready for new siding this summer 🙂

New window at the top of the stairs

New windows in the nursery!!!!

Once the windows were in there was a lot of cleanup and Dad started getting more insulation out of the ceiling of the nursery.  Ryan drilled the holes for the outlet circuit on the exterior wall (so we can install that next weekend) and I removed the old knob and tube wiring (which was still live of course and sitting loose/cut in the ceiling).  So that’s now removed (except for the main light which isn’t knob and tube and will get removed once we put in a new light) 🙂

Look how clean that ceiling is (and it's not quite done - still a little vacuuming to do)

Things are right on track!  With insulation coming on March 21st and Dad coming out to drywall the weekend after it’s a busy 3 weekends but the plan for next weekend is:

• Install corner nailers (at least in the exterior walls, all if time permits)
• Run the outlet circuit (at least in the exterior walls, whole thing time permitting)
• Run the vent pipe on the exterior wall into and across the ceiling so later it can be met up with the upstairs bathroom vent
• Clean up closet (nails to remove, vacuum)
• Clean up basement (they’re insulating the sill plate) so they can reach sill plate all around
• Clean up ‘guest room/master bath’ (so they can insulate)

Time permitting I’d like to get as much of the electrical run as possible (it’s just a simple light circuit, a smoke detector and the outlet circuit in that room).  I will do what I can during the week nights as well so that it doesn’t all fall on the weekend (I can start cleaning up the basement for example).  I’m so excited about the progress that was made this past weekend.  Soon we’ll have drywall up again and be working on the finishing details – FUN!