The delays were getting to be pretty worrisome at this point as the weather is rapidly getting colder and then I also found out that the telehandler (a construction site forklift) we had rented was due back the following Monday (Nov 4). They had it rented out to someone else when we tried to extend it another week. We had also heard that the windows were extremely heavy due to the size and the weight of the oak trim on them, so the lift was pretty critical. So the windows were going in the first weekend of Nov, no matter what! I was able to get one of the guys on the crew who was looking for extra work to help out also, my previously planned helpers re-materialized, and I took off some extra time from work, so we just needed some decent enough weather to push it through.
In the space of 3 days we managed to get 32 windows and doors installed, but not without a fight. The larger windows were "mulled units" that were 3 individual windows fastened together at the factory to go in as a single unit. The biggest ones of these were amazingly heavy - to the point where 2 men could barely lift them, and it took 3 or 4 to comfortably move them. Without the lift platform, there would be no way to put these in.
There was an additional wrinkle. The CAD software automatically generated the rough openings for the windows. They were correct for all of the normal windows (using the Marvin specs), but for some reason were very wrong on the mulled units, and I never knew it (and the lumberyard never bothered to check anything - GRRRR). The rough openings were the right height but they were all too wide by several inches to a foot. We really didn't have a good option at this point, so we had to spend the time to re-frame the openings to fit. Time we didn't need to spend at this point.
In the end it worked out OK, but was very stressful. Too much writing and no pics? Well here they are:
The front door will come later, but in the mean time I got a cheap scratch and dent door for the front entry, and we framed that in to get it enclosed (not shown above). Don't want to damage the nice front door during construction. We put that in a few days after the windows were done.
From the inside, these are the biggest windows that we had to re-frame. If you click on the images, and look closely, you can see the additional framing on the sides of each one. Fortunately it did not seem to change the look or balance much at all.
Back side of the house. That one 3 stories up was one of the more interesting ones to do, and again would not have been possible without the lift.
The garage doors were installed on Nov 15th, and you can see one last door into the garage that was also fighting me. Another case of the rough opening being wrong, only this time too small, so it needed to be cut bigger - major pain! And once again the lumberyard was no help. You would hope for all the money you spend that these guys would have your back better, but I never felt like they did. One of the downsides to not being "in the trade," I guess. We re-framed that opening and got the door in just last weekend (Nov 24 - not shown).
But now we are fully enclosed and weather tight.
The scramble to get insulation in before it got too cold is a lost battle now, so I got temporary construction heat to keep the place from freezing up until we can get to that point, still hopefully soon, but there is a lot yet to do...
Interior framing is next. Unfortunately that does not photograph very well, but you can get some idea from the pics. That is wrapping up now.
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