Working on the Exterior (Windows, deck and patio progress)

Fall is gorgeous here at the lake. We have been enjoying the last few unbundled boat rides. We will boat all winter, but it will involve lots of layers!

As the leaves change and the temperature drops we have less traffic on the lake.

We have mostly completed another renovation project. As you may recall, our small living room had four doors.

Here you can see three and I’m standing in front of the fourth (main entrance door).

The two doors on the front of the house were an obvious afterthought. It’s clear the original design was to have all windows of the same size and someone trimmed in doors later. This design made arranging furniture very difficult. There was no way to have our furniture in here without blocking a door. The doors also had some gaps that allowed bugs to get in easily. We decided to take the doors out and put back in windows to make the front of the house look more cohesive and fix the furniture issue.

Then he framed them for the new windows.

We used Keller Glasco to add glass to these windows as well as replace the glass in all the other windows on the front of the house.

The old glass was hazy and not insulated well.

Now the glass is crystal clear and has UV protection. Please excuse the huge mess on install day.

It used to be very uncomfortable to sit at the dining room table in the morning sun from the amount of heat that transferred. Now it’s perfectly temperature controlled.

We have not retrimmed the new windows yet because we are going to remove all the window trim and do a more bulky wood to create a lattice look. Here is my not so professional drawing of how I want it to look.

It isn’t pretty but you get the idea. the outside will be four inch trim and the inside pieces will create a lattice that spans from window to window. It will hide some of the imperfections in the drywall and match the mission style trim we have in the rest of the home.

On the outside we had to fix the cedar siding where it was removed to get rid of the doors. First we added OSB and housewrap.

I painted the new cedar boards to match the rest of the house.

Hubby and dad made cuts to fit the boards perfectly around the new outdoor outlet hubby added.

Tada! As you can see we have started to remove the deck and hopefully will have a brand new safer one in the next few weeks.

This was nerve racking for mom and I to watch.

We eventually convinced them to stop and will allow the professionals to do the rest. They will be coming to do the deck as well as add stone to the retaining wall we had installed for the patio. Speaking of the patio, let me update you on progress in the yard.