Summer House Projects

When we bought this house, we knew there would be a couple of things that we would need to upgrade within a few year. This was the year of the upgrades for us. We didn't really plan to have both of these things done within the same year, nor did we know that I was pregnant when we entered into agreements, but they needed to be done and we are pleased with the outcome! And, I'm also pleased about the tax credit that we will qualify for because of it.

Project #1 was the replacement of our roof. The original cedar shakes were in poor condition when we bought the house three years ago. Not only did I worry with every big storm, but I also worried every Fourth of July because of fire hazard. The new roof was put on the week AFTER the Fourth this year... which is a little ironic. It is a good quality composition roof. No more fire hazards. I should have taken pictures, because it was really four days of big changes... but I didn't. Charlie and I had fun during the construction. It really wasn't as loud as I'd anticipated. Boone was a little panicked the first couple of days though! This is the year of the roof on our street - three out of the six other houses also had their roofs replaced.

Project #2 was the windows. The old ones had aluminum frames and leaked in quite a bit of cold air. Not only were they drafty, but they were also building up condensation between the panes. So, it was time for a change. We replaced all of the windows on the south facing side of the house... where the weather is the worst. The north side of our house has some big custom windows, and they'll just have to wait to be replaced. :) They're in better condition anyway!

I did take a few pictures of the window install.

The work crew was really good. They worked quickly and were very neat, they barely left any mess behind. Actually, the roof crew was also very good - and I would recommend either company if you are in the area and need to have one of these jobs done yourself. When the crew arrived, they unloaded the windows and unpacked them in front of our house.


This is what the old aluminum windows looked like, from the inside and the outside.



This is the same window "hole" after they'd cut it out. Charlie was fascinated by the huge holes in our house. He thought the saws were pretty cool too!


They replaced these bay windows at the same time... here is what the windows look like from the outside. We really like them!

This is my favorite transformation... Our old garden window....
And our new garden window...


Now we just need to finish preparing for the baby so that I can better decorate the new window!