Painting all done

Here's a pic of the window and wall all painted / touched up and ready for the new blinds that are still being made. Got some fancy top-down / bottom-up cordless honeycomb blinds. Hopefully they fit.

I've also finished installing and painting all the baseboard trim in the room (after this picture was taken), which after seeing it makes me want to install some crown moulding too. I'll save that for the future though.

Inside finish work for Windows

Started to attack the woodwork and trim around the windows. Here's a pic of what the windows used to look like before - it was trimmed by just drywall and had an old tile window sill.

To begin the demolition, which I did so the new windows could be properly installed, I removed all the drywall surrounding the window (as close to the 2x4 studs as possible) and also ripped out the tile and interestingly enough 2 inches of mortar. Luckily I could later fill that mortar gap with just a 2x4.

Showing old window and mortar overkill.

After with new window and 2x4 filler.

So, in order to finish up the windows now, I bought several boards of 1"x4" pine (which is actually 3/4" x like 3 3/4"). Measuring the depth from the new window to the front face of the drywall was exactly 3" all away around the window. Luckily this was fairly consistant so I didn't have to make any strange cuts to compensate for differing depths. Measuring the width and height of the window, I set on my way to create a frame to box in the window. Both windows were 59 1/2" high by 46 3/4" so I cut down 2 boards to 58" for the sides, one at 46 3/4" for the top, and for the window sill, I cut a 6" wide board down to 5" wide and 53 3/4" long (adding 3 1/2" for the overhang on each side).

Ripping the boards to the proper depth/width.

For the window sill, I routed each edge to keep things smooth and finished. Can't remember, but I believe I used a 1/4" rounding bit. Would have been a lot easier with a routing table, but it still worked out surprisingly well with just my palm router. Just took a little finesse. 

Next, I used my jigsaw to cut away the 3" deep x 3 1/2" wide sections so the sill would fit into the window space, yet leave a 2" overhang. I routed the edges of the board first, as doing it after cutting with the jigsaw would have been a little trickier.

Next, to fasten everything together I used a Kreg R3 Jr. Pocket Hole Jig. It worked great and is a slick little tool. It came with everything, even the longer bit for my drill. In order to clamp the piece temporarily when I screwed the pieces together, I used a little 6" vise grip c clamp. I searched around for any alternative I could, but turns out this actually worked out really well.

Completed frame ready to nail into place.

Placing the frame into the space, I used shims all the way around so that it was even around all the sides. Any areas where I would nail into the 2x4 frame, I would place shims.

And the final pic of a window, with the trim nailed into place and everything patched and caulked. I still need to finish it up by painting it, however.

Another little tidbit. In order to create the stool below the window sill, I had to use real wood so I could cut and attach the tiny sliver of wood to each side to finish up the detail. I cut the side of the trim to a 45 degree angle, cut another piece to 45 degrees to match that angle then cut it to the thickness of the trim. To hold it together I used wood glue and tacked it together with a staple gun equipped with 5/8" brads. My first attempt cracked the sliver, but I eventually got the pieces bonded and solid without destroying them. Using the staple gun definitely wasn't the best way to go, but I didn't want to spend $100 on another nail gun.