I told myself that I would not do another blog post about windows until they were done.  I mean, how many different parts of the rehab process can I really show without repeating myself?  Well, this week there were a couple big developments (relatively speaking) and I thought they might just warrant another update.

This week I removed my very last window sash!  In addition, every downstairs window frame is now complete with weather stripping and new sash cords.  As each window has been completed I have removed the boards from the exterior.  This means that more and more light enters our house with each passing day.

Here is the living room and vestibule in progress…

We have had some unseasonable cool days recently so I was able to open some windows to get some fresh air in the house.

The most exciting part of the past week was the removal of the boards on the front of the house.  This is something we have been waiting to do for more than a year!  Amy wanted to be there for the occasion, so we took advantage of some grandparent baby sitting (thanks, Mom!) to work together at the house.  Call it a rehab date.

Here is our very first view of the parlor room without boarded up windows…

Here is the view from the street…

I removed the storm windows to make it easier to remove the window sashes.

After the sashes were removed I put up the old storm windows and then put the boards back up.  This did not please Amy.

Once the windows were removed I got right to business.  I was especially careful with the putty and glass removal process because these are the front windows.  I wanted to make sure that we retained the old wavy glass.  The center window is pretty big…  more than 4’x4′.  Removing this glass was tough because there wasn’t much wiggle room between the glass and the sash on any side.  I triple checked every inch to make sure I had removed anything that could possible cause the glass to break when I tried to remove it.

With help from Amy, we were able to carefully remove the glass in one piece and breath a big sigh of relief.

I scraped, sanded, primed the exterior, finished the interior, and reglazed the five front windows in record time.

One of the big reasons I have tripled my effort on the windows is because it is a job I can do without spending much money.  I have had to buy some more supplies, but window renovation is mostly just labor intensive. This is important because…  we are broke.  Don’t worry, this was all part of the plan.  We knew we had just enough money to get to this point and once we sell our current house we will be able to use that equity for our more expensive jobs that remain.  We have had a potential buyer on our current house for a few months now and it looks like it might be wrapping up soon (more detail on that development in a later post).  This is great news because we sure need that equity!

In the meantime, we keep plugging away on jobs that need to be done at some point before moving in.  We look at it like this:  There are “x” number of hours between now and moving in.  Whether those hours are spent on finishing windows or finishing floors, it really doesn’t matter.  They both need to be done.  As long as we maximize the time we do have, everything will work out fine.  Sometimes there are things in the house or yard that we want to do or will need to do at some point, BUT they are not important to making the house livable by this summer.  These things are ignored.

The “x” number of hours has really effected how we view our “free” time.  Not to get too deep or philosophical, but it reminds us that we only have “x” number of hours until we die.  Whoah.  I know.  This post just took a left turn!  Let me explain…  The rehab project illustrates how important every hour is that we have on this planet.  That doesn’t mean that every hour must be spent working on the house.  It means that every hour is valuable and that if we aren’t spending it working on the house than we better be doing something good…  Like playing with the kids, reading to Lucy, cooking a good dinner, talking on the porch swing, or watching a family movie.  These things are all appreciated so much more when you realize the value of time.  Amy and I were never big time-wasters, but now we find that every minute has even more purpose.  Life is just too short.

Speaking of “stopping to smell the roses”….