Remodeling Our Hut Part 15: Bay Windows

Our very own Bob the Builder hard at work

 Thursday, August 8, I arrived a little later than usual to the remodeling party.  By the time I walked in, another major change had occurred, Bob had removed the old picture window and was in the process of framing in the new bay windows.

 I was bound and determined to protect the hardwood floor in the living room and Ann was determined to help me.  She met me in the morning with cardboard she had saved from her workplace.  We had put down some plastic sheeting which resembles cling wrap first and then covered over the sheeting with cardboard pieces, taped securely so no dirt could get underneath.

 

 While Ann and I were working on the cardboard, it was hard to take my eyes off the new view opened up in the living room.  The bay windows add about three feet of depth to the dimension of the room, which isn't much, but it sure makes a difference.

Bob put plywood up so he could tarp off the front of the house and hopefully keep rain out.  After the debacle we'd had the night before with the four inches of rain, I wasn't too optimistic.  The roof was cut off and tarp or no tarp, rain will get in.

Above you can see the awesome job Ann did covering the hardwood.  And after everyone left that night, I put a lawn chair in the bay window area and daydreamed about what it would all look like finished.

  

  
I think we'll like the area, I can see our two chairs parked there, side by side.  Someday, that is.

 

From one tarp, to two.

 

The front of the house now sported two big blue tarps.  For weeks on end.

The view from the living room bay window to the back door.  The back door was also demolished along with the east kitchen wall, but that's to come yet.

As soon as Bob was done with the front window, he started work on the breakfast nook bay window foundation.  Here he's down on the ground nailing in the floor joists.  The wall will be torn out eventually and three new windows put in.

 My job during this entire remodel has been to pick up after the builders and try to anticipate what they need to be moved out of their way.  I pull nails out of boards, pick up used insulation and shingles and more or less am the clean up crew.  If there is anything I can do to help this project along, I'm all for it.  Bob and Phil do clean up too, of course, but I try to pitch in as much as possible.

In the picture below, I'm sitting on the upstairs staircase, trying to picture how the house will change once they tear out the wall to the left of the green stepladder.

   

  

    The front door will be moved to the right of the stepladder in the picture, in the center of the house, and the rest of that wall is now gone.  I tried to find a good before and after picture, but I haven't got one, drat.

Carl and I were a bit melancholy, we normally have our big booyah party the second Saturday of August when our little town celebrates Hamburger Days.  We almost forgot all about it until we walked out to our cars that night and saw the hot air balloons on the horizon. 

While we've been immersed in the remodel, life has been going on without us.  

 

We took a drive a mile west to see the balloons landing and then went back to work for a few hours.  

  

Another day of work was over with.  The next day was Saturday and we were nervous as it was going to be even more challenging; it was time to move the garage back onto the new foundation.

Coming up: Garage on the Move