House Projects: To Finish the Front

Thank you so much for all the compliments on the new front gable ends on our house. Trying to finish at least the exterior of our house was at the top of this year’s homestead goals, with finishing the front this winter. To do that, there is only one more set of windows to be replaced.

I’m not even sure what to call this room anymore. The real estate ad called it the third bedroom, although the realtor also called it “the sun room.” Here’s an inside look at those windows before we moved in.

It’s a long narrow 9′ 3.5″ by 19′ 11″ room with three walls of windows. Initially I thought it would be perfect for my weaving studio, although it proved to be a pretty tight fit for my large Glimakra loom, all of my yarns, fibers, and books, spinning wheels, with no room for my sewing machine. You can see more photos of the room before we moved in here (and photos of my original studio set-up here). When Dan started working on our master suite we had to clear out our second bedroom so this room became a storage room. Now it serves as my office as well as for storage.

The plan is to replace those old windows with one new energy efficient one. As with all the other windows we’ve replaced the sizes are different, so we’ll have to do some tearing out and rebuilding to accommodate the new. The big question is whether or not there is structural damage hiding beneath the siding and framing. When we replaced the windows on the back wall of this room (a side project in order to install our large rain catchment tank), Dan discovered a rotted rim joist and rotted ceiling girders. Quite a bit of repair had to be done. No telling what it will be like when those front windows are removed.