Glass

So it's getting to be around nine am.  I roll over and hazily remember it's after the first of the month and I didn't have to make rent this month.  That's a warm fuzzy.  Raindrops are clearly audible on the roof above me.  I'm hearing a steady dripping noise and can't tell whether it's inside or out.  I'm paranoid 'cause I've never had a linoleum roof before.  The garage has been dry for months now as after inspection it proves to continue to be.  Sweet!  Soon I need to get down to the building permit office to get more info about the demolition and construction permit I'll need to take the porches off and repair the floor as well as to ascertain the disposition of the electrical permit.   The inspector informed me I wouldn't be required to rewire the house though everything up to the old wiring will have to meet code.  The electrical permit expires in February unless I take further action to get new circuits installed by then - I don't think I'll be ready that soon as the new wiring will pass through the sill which has to be replaced because of rot...   Must be time to get up. 

 I shed the covers I've been snoozing under.  The purple 'comforter' is actually a down mummy bag that is my oldest artifact - aside from some photos - from marriage.  There are of course my two wonderful daughters...  That bag has kept me warm on many chilly nights.  I try to carry it with me when I travel.
    I check through my computer messages, eat some fruit maybe peanuts, then it's time for my first trip into the house for the day unless I've had pressing business earlier.  Get mud boots on and into the house to brush my teeth.  The site of morning ablutions with growing 'medicine cabinet'.

 Back to the garage.  Flip the radio on - KEUG/BOBFM - and do my exercise routine.  All told takes 'bout an hour and a half with a half time break.  Next stop into the house for a refreshing - whew! - cold water sponge bath.  Not too bad in the forties but thirties is definitely bracing.   Somewhere around noon or so I'm ready to begin tackling the day's objective.  Once darkness sets in I begin losing steam for work so at this time of year I have a max of three or four hours for a task.  That can be plenty - say when one is shoveling wheelbarrow loads of earth as I did Sunday last to build up the area around the garage for drainage.  Of course not every day is turned toward the house.
    I don't have a fridge running and have developed a habit of grocery shopping daily.  I tend to do that in the early evening then prepare and eat a meal which can push dinner later.  I might address a small project or prep for a project after that, head for bed, and do it again tomorrow.

 I enjoy accomplishing tasks so it's easy to spend time appreciating the fruits of my labors as I do here on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  My ability to enjoy without gagging from stench exhibits the departure of odor.   Having the glass whole and transparent in the house is highly visible and has a large psychological impact for me so it's been a priority objective.  Too a guy can begin to close the house up for heating with the glass good.  I reported last post that glass was whole through out the house as it was at the time with one room's panes left to clean and scrape.  I of course proceeded to break two panes scraping & cleaning in that front bedroom and two further during installation - three panes for one sash a record for me - so...
    Glass is a tough material for a DIYer  (Do It Yourselfer) like myself.   I'm glad I'm not as recalcitrant and brittle as some of these panes have been else I too would be shattered.  None the less my mettle has been tried. I bought the house with two panes in the middle bedroom and the west side fixed window broken.  The stench in the house was so powerful this summer I broke the big front window in an effort to get more air in the house.  Earlier this month scraping the two ancient west kitchen panes I broke 'em both.  Subsequently successfully cleaned the two living area doublehungs and the upper front pane using paint remover as per Kate's suggestion. 
   Now I had six panes of varying sizes to replace.  Decided to attempt to cut glass myself.  Found a cheap pane at ReStore, purchased a cutter for a few bucks at Home Depot.  There was another piece of glass and broken panes at the house too. Actually managed to cut a piece of glass on the kitchen counter that successfully went into the middle bedroom window.  Other unsuccessful tries at glass cutting - especially larger panes - decided me to go to Bring (building materials) Recycling when an occasion arose to seek panes of or near sizes I needed figuring precut or only needing one cut panes would be easiest.
    A sixteen foot extension ladder for 30 bucks came up on Craigslist.   To pick it - just the right size for a single story home like mine - up was half way to Bring so I got all my measurements together, put a few things in the truck to donate at Bring, picked up the ladder from its homeowner who was moving on, and went glass hunting.  Apparently Bring has been there for years but besides 'bring your money' I don't know where the name comes from.  'Sposed to have been easier to find deals there in the past.  As ever shopping is key.  I dug and looked and measured and did it again.  Came up with a beveled plate glass piece for my fixed west side front window for three bucks, a plate glass piece for the large front window for five bucks, a pane with sash for the kitchen window, and two other pieces to cut to size for kitchen and bedroom - the works for $25.  Stood 'em all on edge on cardboard with cardboard between 'em in the back of the old pickup leaned and braced against a particle board vanity Bring wouldn't take, bounced home and deposited my finds in the kitchen.

With ladder handy decided to clean the back porch gutter hoping to keep the garage doorway drier.  Plants - perhaps licorice root? -  growing there were rooted between roof boards and shingles not in the gutter as I thought.

    Pulled 'em out, regrouped near the downspout at the back of the garage hoping they'll take, and cleared the gutter of debris.

   That makes me ready to tackle the glass.  I'll start at the front door and work my way clockwise 'round the house though the assault was no where near that orderly in real life.
    I'd already adjusted the front door to close smoothly by putting longer screws in the upper hinge - no more kicking it open.  The door has a small glass pane in it.  A number of attempts at cutting a proper sized piece of glass from the scraps I had around failed.  Kate and I had visited a house giving away building materials I found on Craigslist.  They had a lot of stuff there but we came away with only a few small plexiglass panes.  Finally I deeply scored one of these to size with my razor blade scraper and successfully broke it to fit the door.  In it went.

I had boarded the big front window I broke allowing air into the house with a piece of cardboard wainscoting from the bathroom.  To begin I removed that sash.

I'd nailed the wainscoting with nails so long they went all the way through the sash.  I had bent (cleated) them over with hammer so they were especially fun to remove.  The sash was already a basket case from the original removal so using small nails to reattach some splinters and long screws to bond side rails to top and bottom rails I managed a serviceable reconstruction job.  The new plate glass is about 1/4" thick compared to the original single strength glass that was about 1/8".  Too the piece from Bring is about 1/4" bigger than the original opening - hey for $5 I'm not complaining - so with screwdriver as chisel I spent some time making the hole big enough for the new glass.  Across the top of the window the glass is held by a slot in that rail which I had to widen as well with my 'chisel' to allow the plate glass to fit.

 As you can see here I did less than a superlative job but I figure if this window makes it to the final cut - unlikely - a knife, some putty, and paint will take care of most of the evils perpetrated on it.

Makes for a nice front window now though.  The next victim is the west side fixed window that was broken when I got the house.

Here it appears in all its scuzzy glory with the interior stop moldings removed standing on the floor below.

Had to go outside on the ladder and remove those moldings to get the window out. 

 

 The sash with glass removed - and in pieces on the floor - ready to receive the new beveled piece from Bring.

As I was working I was reminded why I want the glass whole and clear - what a view!

And the completed repair job with the period appropriate beveled glass window clearly evident here from the refraction it causes.

Very nice.  The west side doublehungs are next.  They cleaned up just fine with an application of paint remover prior to scraping.  These sashes are pretty shot too and have received and will get more attention if they stay.

I keep them and most of the windows curtained for civility.  The west kitchen doublehung window was heavily oversprayed and in attempting to scrape them clean I broke both panes.  I found a sash with glass at Bring that would replace the lower sash after being shaved a bit on the bottom with skill saw.  I had a local glass shop cut the piece I bought at Bring to fit the upper sash, installed, and now have a whole window.

I like seeing what's going on in the park from the kitchen.  Next in rotation is the back door which I actually repaired last chronologically.  The glass cleaned up pretty well with a scraper as there was no paint on this window.  All of the old glass in the house will need cleaning with Bon Ami at some point to really get it clean but the worst is taken care of.

This door wouldn't shut all the way due to shifting and settling of the house.

As far as it would close so I used the edge of a screwdriver & hammer to clear the hinge screw slots of paint.
                                                                   Backed the screws out bottom hinge first and laid the door on a couple of sturdy kitchen cupboard drawers which serve as sawhorses and stool while I'm working on the house.

Screwdriver as scribe, broom stick as straightedge I mark a line across bottom of the door, check for metal objects, cut.

Temporarily reinstalled the door to find trimming the vertical edge necessary.  This cut I eyeballed using a mark on the saw as guide forgetting I still had the saw set for a bevel cut for the bottom of the kitchen window - I finished the cut anyway.  Guess I still know how to use a saw.

Now the back door closes just fine.  At a later date I'll address knob and deadbolt for this door even though it will ultimately likely be replaced.

 I was able to keep the poor man's deadbolt functional with the newly ripped door.  Here we see it without and with door closed.

The kitchen sink (north) window was never oversprayed either so both its panes clean up just fine.  I'm letting air into the house through this window.  The other pane leans protected against the wall.

Next glass in line is the looking glass in the blue painted medicine cabinet in the bathroom.  Not much of a mirror.

So I mounted a three piece cabinet mirror without cabinet I got at Restore for a buck using one of its side rails to hold the three pieces atop the chair rail that runs midway up the wall around the bathroom.  Now I can see myself!  The bath sink will eventually go under the new mirror.

The once scuzzy bathroom window now needs a curtain to maintain bathroom propriety.

 Its pane mate ready and waiting.

The middle bedroom window needed and had both panes in the left sash replaced.  The remainder scraped and cleaned makes a nice bedroom window.

 I shroud it so morning runs to the loo don't give neighbors an eyeful.

The front bedroom east window was the real pisser.  Broke the original whole panes in the upper center sash as well as in the lower left sash scraping them.  The lower left replaced well enough with a double strength pane from the glass shop.  I actually cut a piece to fit the upper middle that I broke installing - pressing in glazing points.  The glass shop cut a second piece of single strength to fit from a pane I bought at St. Vinnie's.  That one too broke on installation.  Finally after the Ducks went undefeated through their entire season the glass shop cut a double strength piece I gingerly and successfully installed.  The window went from eyesore to nice opening on the world.

Finally even though the east front window had been replaced by the previous owners a scraping and cleaning improved it immensely.

So NOW the glass in the house is all whole and clean.  That accomplished I can go on to scraping and cleaning odor killing lime out of the house, installing wood stove, and generally gettin' down to rockin' and rollin' inside.   I feel good about that.  I'm pretty sure my next work forays will be outside though.  It's getting to be time to turn the garden soil over and start nickle and diming that big old stump to death.   All of that will be covered here but in the next column or two I'd like to talk about tools as they play such an essential part in all of this.  'Til then god bless & be well.