Windows!

The carriage house has a total of six windows, all 54" high. They are in varying states of repair, but basically, except for one, they're total losses. Here, you see one of the front windows, which has been boarded up, in its naked state. There's no window there.

And sure, they could be fixed. But look at them -- they're nothing special. The big windows in the big house, I'm not replacing those; they're fabulous. But these? There's just no reason to work hard to keep them.

And fortunately, Pella makes vinyl inserts for existing wooden frame double-hung windows. You remove the sash (or, as with this window, you buy it preremoved), and stick the new window into the hole, shim it, screw it down, and caulk it. It takes about an hour, according to the brochure.

So. The bedroom window is 36"x54". Standard, $166. These two are 30"x54", which is not standard, but as you can see, there's just window frame between the two of them. There is a 32"x54" standard window. I'm just going to put a board between two of those for the front window here, after removing the intermediate framing post there. I forget the exact price of the 32"x54" insert. The other three (hallway, kitchen, and bathroom) are all 28.5"x54", which neatly fits the standard 28"x54" given a little quarter-inch board on each side. I believe those cost $116 per. So we're talking about maybe $800 and two days' work to replace all the windows here in the carriage house.

That is hereby the plan.

Scored a fridge

For $80. Delivered. I just love Craiglist.

Carriage house water heater - change in plans

I talked to the plumber about installing the tankless water heater. Turns out (logically) that a tankless water heater needs a more robust flue than a regular water heater, because when it's in use it really cranks through the heat. So I realized that I don't really want to get into a long, drawn-out project with updating the flue, just to get moved into the carriage house.

Long story short: I bought a replacement water heater, a regular tank heater, and my dad and I installed it this morning. Here it is, all shiny and fresh. Note that it has a separate cutoff - which is useful, because of course I haven't replumbed the hot water yet.

I tested the hot water, and yeah, got kind of soaked. There's at least a fitting blown under the bathtub; the rest look like they might be OK, but it's hard to tell when all that water is spraying around.

But - as soon as I have that fixed, and call the gas company to get my gas turned on, I've got hot water!

In other news, I've made a lot of progress in mopping ceilings and walls. It's looking a lot better in here. Still smells like bleach, but that's a real improvement on what it smelled like two weeks ago. Ha.

And in other other news, I measured the bedroom window, just to get an idea of what it might cost to replace windows. It measures 36" x 54" - meaning it's a lot bigger window than it really looks in place - and wonder of wonders, that seems to be a quasi-standard size. I have a wooden option at Menard's for $250, and Lowe's has a vinyl insert for $150 or so. In total, there are six windows in the carriage house, and frankly, they're nothing special, so I don't feel bad about replacing them with something more modern. So I could do it with halfway decent wooden windows for $1500, or cheaper-looking vinyl for $900.

Dirty carriage house ceilings

Just as a point of reference, here's the dirt on the ceiling of the carriage house. The thumbnail here doesn't really show much, so click through for a higher-resolution version. When I first saw this, I thought it was mold. Imagine my relief to find it was a mixture of food and cigarette smoke. The paint is a super-durable double coat of enamel, so the dirt comes off easily with a bleachy mop and a little scrubbing, but I find it surprisingly tiring to hold the mop up for that long.

Anyway, nearly caught up with Job #1, after which I will be catching up with Job #2, after which, the theory is, I will be back to more frequent House work. I was cleaning here in the carriage house until I ran out of bleach. But yesterday, I bought more bleach, so ... progress. Yes.

Office set up

Here you see my office setup, complete with comfortable dog. She's just happy to smell that shell chair again. I'm just happy to have my second monitor again.

So this picture was taken two minutes ago, and is being posted from that very laptop. That's pleasing circularity.

I'm going to move a little faster now that I can be here all day every day. Or at least, that's my hope.

Window wells

Here's the window well on the south side of the east end of the basement. As you can see, it has drainage. Unfortunately, that drainage is into the basement, which experts consider suboptimal, even somewhat gauche. There are two reasons for this drainage situation -- there are no gutters on the south side of the main roof, but there is also no external drainage on the window well, which is about eight inches to a foot deep (I haven't measured, and there are leaves in it, so it's hard to say more precisely than that). All I can figure is that the right way to do this, besides putting gutters on the roof of course, is to dig a drain out to the street, and put a real drain in the window well. Repeat for all the window wells, although this is the worst.

Comments welcome.

Incidentally, this window was also the coal chute. I can tell because there are pieces of coal on the floor under it. This also tells me that the last time this basement was swept was during the McKinley administration.

One clean room

The front room in the carriage house is now officially clean enough that I can put my office in it for daytime use. The walls and ceiling appear to have small flecks of (presumably thrown) food. The carriage house apartment's previous occupant suffered from Huntingon's Disease, the hereditary neural degenerative disease that killed Woody Guthry. It doesn't make for easy cleanup, but it's all possible.

I also got another window open in the carriage house bedroom. That room still smells fairly vile, so it needs another few passes, clearly. The open window will help. It doesn't have glass in it, but it does have a storm window on it. It had been stuffed with R-13 fiberglass insulation and covered with Visqueen.

That was the sum total of today's progress. I'm busy with paying work this week; don't expect much.