New Windows

A look at the new windows I've been working on installing (although a buddy of mine who knows what he's doing did the majority of the installation). Before they were aluminum and sound really carried through them when cars would drive by. There was also plastic shutters flanking them, which I had to take off in order to rip out the old windows and install the new.

I had to pull the trim off to get the windows in (all screwed in from the outside). I luckily found the house paint in the garage, and was able to touch up the paint on the trim and voids that were left behind when removing the shutters. The original color of the house was apparently dark brown with bright green trim. Lovely?

I upgraded the standard vinyl windows a little bit, and got ones with an STC rating of 30. Standard windows have a STC (Sound Transmission Class) of around 25, and an increase of 10 in the rating apparently cuts the sound in half, so I've noticed a pretty good decrease in sound with the new windows. Having windows with and STC of around 35-40 would have been really nice, but they would cost a fortune, as the exterior walls of the house have that same rating. I'll share some pics of the inside work once I start tackling that. I'll be installing wood casing around the windows, as before they were trimmed by just drywall and a tile window sill.

Green Thumb?

I definitely don't have a green thumb, but try to at least keep things neat and tidy in the garden. Looking back at old photos, things certainly look better than they used to after putting in some edging, bark, and of course weeding.

Bad photo of before.

After!

Ah... memories

I've been working on installing new windows in the house. Was looking at some older photos for some "before" shots and things certainly look a little different. Here's a quick before and after of the front of the house. It's not a true before and after, as there was just dirt at the front when I first bought the house.

Aluminum windows with plastic shutters, plus unfinished flowerbed.

New vinyl windows (downstairs too) with (edged) flowerbed all finished.

In between this, I was reminded of the disaster that was my sprinkler system shutoff valve. When winter came around, I wanted to shut off the water, but couldn't find my shutoff valve. Many days of digging unearthed the hidden valve - and instead of replacing the underground valve, I instead completely moved it inside the house. Definitely the way to go as a valve outside the house, sitting right next to the foundation with a possibility of leaking or bursting seems kinda dumb.

Eventually found the buried hole leading to the valve (completely full of dirt).

The PVC pipe that was supposed to lead to the valve didn't actually lead to anything. Had to dig down about 5-6 feet to discover this fact. Seems the previous owners had tried to fix it earlier, gave up, and buried the evidence. I found the bottom of the broken PVC pipe buried about half way down the hole.

A look at the hole completely dug out. You can see the T junction where the sprinkler system joins to the water main. The stop/waste valve was less than a foot away from the foundation wall.

A look from the outside.

Most of the work to fix things was done on the inside. Got the T junction and valve removed and all the pipes moved inside the house. Moving it inside allowed me to have easy access to shut off the water to the sprinklers, and also hook up an air compressor the the line to blow the water out of the sprinkler lines if necessary.