Somehow, Tanner managed to hurt his back yesterday, so he wasn't as much of the strong work horse as he usually is. We had planned for today to be the day that we replaced the girls' window. We figured, since we were amatuers, we would allot the entire morning for the project. We started tearing the window out at about 7:30 this morning.
At first, things went very smoothly. We removed the trim pieces and were happy to see that not much rot had occured. We had the window out of the frame by about 8:30. Not bad. Maybe we were going to get lucky on this one. We knew that we'd have to tear the sheetrock off of the lower half of the window and about 6" to the left and right of the window in order to re-do the framing, but as we pulled the sheetrock from the bottom, I yelled, "Stop!" There was green mold underneath. Sigh. We stopped, found masks, eye gear, locked the girls in the front rooms with a movie, and prepared to demolish the whole wall. We pulled, sawed and crowbarred our way through the mess, until we found the end of the mold, plus 6". Whew! At least the mold stopped before going around the corner! By the time we were finished, it was 1:00, and time for lunch...so much for the morning. Now, we were just hoping to get the window into it's slot before Tanner had to go to work.
We got back to work at about 1:30 after giving the girls a quick kiss, a new movie and renewed instructions to stay in the front 3 rooms. Even though the mold was now out of the house, I really didn't want to run the risk of getting them sick. We finished framing in the window and were just about to start work on the trim pieces when Tanner stepped on a nail. So, we took an unwanted break to clean and dress the wound. Then I had to stop to nurse Georgie. By the grace of God, she was in a happy mood today and was content to sit in her swing and play with toys for most of the day. We finished the trim pieces and hefted the window into it's position...it didn't fit. Apparently, my suggestion to make sure the pieces were level was a good suggestion after all. Unfortunately, we hadn't done that. So...a bit more hammering on Tanner's part as I had to pick up Georgie since she had just about had enough of her toys, a little bit more sawing for Tanner, and we were ready to give it a try. I set Georgie down, went outside and we hefted the window into place, AND, hooray, it fit. Tanner nailed it down, fetched his drill and finished screwing it into place while I went to pick up Georgie again since she was screaming.
I acutally got to use the rotary saw, the drill, the hammer, the crowbar and lots of nails and screws today. I had to. Tanner's back was pretty sore. I definitely had a lot of fun. I now know how to measure 16" centers, how to measure king studs and jack studs and cripple studs, and I'm very thankful that I don't have to do it by myself because it is REALLY hard work. We managed to pull everything together and got the window installed a half hour before Tanner had to go to work.
I feels a little sorry for him since I get to sit and relax and rest while he's working. I'm just thankful that we were able to get the house sealed up before nightfall. I did a little caulking around the boards so that bugs can't get into the house for the night. We still have to frame in the wall and call for an inspection, but the hardest part is over, a new day is coming.
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