Monday, October 27, 2008

Let The Sun Shine In!

This is a defining moment in the saga of our house! Jake from Lambdon Windows cuts an opening for a new window in our south wall, and the sun pours in!! (Well, the light anyway!) I was so excited!



We'd always suspected that there were originally two windows on this wall; because our house is very symmetrical. When he cut the opening, he did indeed find the framing for the original window. One inch off our new hole!! What idiot would cover up two south facing windows to create a long, dark hallway of a room?


This is the west wall. We took out the horizontal, 1970's window and replaced it with a vertical window to match the originals. Now the room has three identical windows. You could feel the house breathe a sigh of relief, I swear!

Looking to the backyard from inside....




And looking into the room from the back porch...




Here's the finished window.



I took this while the workers went to lunch. Tomorrow (if we don't get the 15 cm. of snow predicted!), I'll take another of the finished product!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Red Pine Plank Floor

Well, this is pretty much the state of our t.v. room right now. (Anyone want to buy a hockey table?) In this view we are looking from the middle of the room towards the front of the house. The 1970's baseboards have been removed, and the plywood floors ripped off. This end of the room's floor has paint only around the perimeter.



In this fuzzy picture, we are looking towards the back of the house. This part of the room has a brown paint on it. Only one layer though. See the little jog in the paint cover in the top photo? It's the same on each side of the room, so I wonder if there was an archway wall dividing the room up. That's what we have on the other side of the house...




Here's a close up. It's like this on both sides of the room. Any ideas?




Here is the trap door we uncovered in the front hallway. In the middle of the photo you can just see the stairs going up. Directly across from them is the front door. In the background the living room. The wall built over the trap door is new; the door into this room used to be just like the one going into the living room - right at the bottom of the stairs. Following all this?!


You know, looking at this from this angle, it reminds me of a house I lived in in Ottawa that had a GIANT heating vent right in the middle of the room. The oil furnace was right under it, and we used to stand over it to get warm. Maybe that's what this was. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a trap door, even though we call it that...



This bit in the floor is where the original wall was that held the original doorway into the t.v. room. Which wasn't a t.v. room of course. Probably a kitchen originally. Confused? So is the house! That naked lady with her legs wide open is a boot jack by the way. Just so you know!!



A close up of the floor.



I sanded a patch just to see what it will look like. This weekend we are renting a sander and doing the whole room.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I LOVE hardware!!

Big excitement! My parents decided to get new windows put into their beautiful old house. After having a hissy fit, and telling my poor Mum that new windows would wreck the look of their house, I calmed down, and meekly asked her to at least save me the hardware.

Look! She brought me a bag full last weekend, and I was so excited to see these two piece window closures...




And look! Thumb latch things!




So, in my excitement, I'm ignoring things I really should be doing (floors, mainly...) and stripping hardware!! Look - here's a clean one sitting on a window beside a painted one. Yes, my Mum brought me some whole windows too!




Here's a close up of it, all cleaned up! Isn't it beautiful? This is the open position.



...and in the locked position....

Thanks Mum!! I'll be installing these babies (and the thumb latches) on the four original windows downstairs. Three in the living room, and one in the t.v. room. I think they will look wonderful!

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