Dinky window reveal

That dinky little window in the bathroom is now finished. I probably shouldn't keep calling it that, because it doesn't look dinky at all now it has been primed and has a couple of coats of gloss white.

Single-pane casement window with chrome casement stays and handle

It's a major improvement to what was there.

The old window which was just odd bits of louvre glass which could not open or close.

Dirty little window

Having the window custom made was a good experience for us, especially as we have mostly worked with salvaged joinery. It is so much easier fitting something new than the old stuff according to Jason. It just slotted into position, as it should.

The little window cost $135 not including the fittings. And it is another small project we can tick off our list.

Dinky little window

Today, I picked up the new window that we had made. As it was being loaded into the boot of my car, the man from the joinery place said it was a dinky little thing. I chirped up and said of course it was dinky, "It's for a dinky little hole in the wall."

Jason arrived home ill this evening and is becoming acquainted with the toilet bowl as I type this...(poor sick Jason!), which means I have no one else to share the joy of the window with. Luckily the blog is my outlet. Ha!

So, please admire my dinky new window...Isn't it darling?

single light casement window with arctic glass

The dinky little thing is made from Surian Cedar and the glass is fixed into place with timber beading rather than the putty that we have in all the original windows. We also opted for toughened arctic glazing to match our other windows.

The new window will have to be primed and sealed with an oil based primer and then painted with a few coats of gloss before it will be ready to install. 

Fortunately, this weekend is the Queen's Birthday holiday which means a long weekend. Hooray!!

If painting goes to plan, installation of the window will be this weekend. Cross fingers!

Single light casement window

I've just ordered a new window to be made up for the bathroom.

We decided against another coloured window, as we thought it would compete with the amber/yellow glass that is already in the bathroom. And as much as we like green glass, the mix of green and the yellow would be too patriotic for us (thanks to the commentator who kindly reminded us of this fact!).

The original plan was to get a small hopscotch casement window made, but we found out that it could not be manufactured with toughened arctic glass...it could only be done with cathedral glass which is not as textured as arctic. Arctic glass is used in most of the windows in the Sow's Ear.

small hopscotch
We will now have just a single light casement instead.

Toughened arctic is limited to how small it can be cut and our window pane sizes were too small. Normal arctic glass does not have this issue but window manufacturers can't sell it to us because of new regulatory standards. The glass must be to Australian safety standards. Who knew this stuff?

cathedral at the top and arctic at the bottom

As a default, we opted for a single light casement with toughened arctic glass instead. It was also the cheapest and easiest option by far.

we've ordered a smaller version with no frame which will then be  primed and painted.

We could have opted for an unglazed hopscotch window which we could glaze ourselves with normal arctic glass (ie glass that hasn't gone through the toughening process) ... For one small window, the bother factor was not high. 'Phew!' sighs Jason.

The window gets made up in over a week. I'll keep you posted. 

Little window

There is a dodgy little window in our bathroom that we are going to replace.

The said dodgy window is just thin bits of mismatched glass slotted into a frame and held in place with wood nailed around the frame; similar to louvered windows...However, you can't open or close the window; it's permanently semi-open.

Small bathroom window

Small window. It's so filthy. But I'm not about to clean it either with its days numbered...
Domestic goddess I am not!

Jason's given me the measurements and has delegated the task to me to get this thing made, as it's not a standard size. He told me to get a single pane with arctic glass casement.

I wish Jason would just go out an order it himself...

So where do I go to get this thing made?  What should it be made of, if that's even an option? And I want to get coloured glass too, but choosing the colour is the big question? Amber, green, rose, or just clear arctic?

All these questions! Can anyone help?

Windowliscious

You can see I was stumped for a blog title!

The final hopscotch window was installed last weekend...in the rain of course. I don't think Jason even sees the rain any more and I've never ever seen him consult the Bureau of Meteorology for a weather forecast when planning outdoor work!

Despite the weather, he managed to install the window. A clean and a coat of exterior gloss white will get the windows looking lovely again.

Anyway, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

The windows are salvaged from an old Queenslander. We changed them so that all the windows were in keeping with the house. It gives a more seamless appearance to the exterior of the house. 

This is Jason planing the windows in drizzly weather, so that they would fit comfortably

This is the bedroom side of the Sow's Ear. The colourful side with green, amber and clear panes of glass. Maybe we're not quite matchy-matchy after all! The sticky-out section was an addition to a bedroom in the 1950s - it is part of our master bedroom

Hopscotch window installed

Jason was his regular busy-bee self on the weekend. He successfully replaced one of the casement windows in his man cave/gimp room which is located under the house. He'll be replacing the other one next weekend.

Have a looksy.

 The new but old windows on the right are salvaged windows from an old Queenslander. The single light windows on the left will be advertised for sale along with the other windows we have lying around.  

We've been changing all the single light casement windows and steadily replacing them with windows in the hopscotch style to make the Sow's Ear more consistent.  The single light windows are a consequence of previous renovations and changes to the Sow's Ear over its life. 

Most restoration purists would say that we should leave them, as it forms the fabric or story of the house...Jason likes his windows to be all the same though...at least in terms of profile style. On this side of the house we have a quirky colour combination of the original amber glass, plus windows which have green or clear glass. This is the colourful eclectic side of the house which is not visible from the street.

Anyway, it actually didn't take Jason that long to install the windows. The most time consuming part was taking out the old windows, ensuring they didn't crack.

As you can see in the image below, the new old windows are hinged. We'll add brass casement stays and handles to fasten the windows shut after they are completely painted.

Planing  the casement windows slightly to make them fit.
Jason is sporting his winter work clothes... on a chilly-for-sub-tropical-Brisbane day.

I'll show you the final result when it's all done and dusted.

Bedroom side of the house

There's still so much painting to do on the Sow's Ear. It's ridiculous. We think we are Dulux's best domestic customer in Australia because we just finished another 15 litre drum of exterior gloss this weekend.

Jason spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday painting the new weatherboards on the bedroom side of the little pigster.

Jason painting the window sills.
(You know that there's a chill in the air when Jason's wearing a shirt.)

Jason has big plans to change the single-pane casement windows that are in his gimp room under the house (windows on the left in the image above). He wants to swap them for windows in the hopscotch profile to make it consistent to the rest of the Sow's Ear. We already have the windows from when we bought a stash of windows from our mate Will (you can read here about it here).

Jason must've been feeling super-energetic because he also painted the joists on the underside of the bay window. If we stood still enough, I reckon Jason would paint me and the kids too.

Painted joists under the bay window. You can also see one of the original hopscotch windows of the Sow's Ear here

And this last shot is for the hard-core Jason fans. There's the faintest hint of man flesh there for huge fans like the lovely F from The White House. No need to thank me...

Look at the painting stance and technique...
This is Jason's new-work-around-the-house uniform.
My Mum kept my brother's old shirts from when he was a teenager in the 80s and often gives Jason first dibs. Ha!

  

Change of plans...already

So much for the big pronouncements for 2012...

Jason's putting on hold some of the 2012 renovation plans after he looked at our rather unhealthy bank balance just after I published that last blog post. Ha! Christmas and New Year are an expensive time of year, doubly so if all your life and income protection insurance is due on Boxing Day. Yikes!

It seems our reno desires are bigger than our budget at the moment. The decorative valances for our deck and recladding the bottom half of the Sow's Ear are postponed for now, so there will be no getting jiggy with the circular saw this month. It may be an Easter project.

Unfortunately, the priority will be on finishing the exterior painting while we save up some dollars. We have a lot of paint. And painting is a relatively inexpensive task when DIYing. The second carport needs to be finished too, as it is still in heritage colours.

Jason is planning to renovate the study at the same time - it is a small room and hopefully it will break up the monotony of just painting. There are window frames which need fixing and some VJ (vertical join) board  to reinstate on the walls; that may be the variety needed to spice things up around here. It will also be within our meagre budget.

Study windows with old tear-drop window hardware.

Study windows. The bullnose and scotia and window frames require some work!

Original casement stays

The funny thing is he went to buy brass window fittings on his way to work this morning. That's keen! He loves his polished brass and has bought enough for the seven windows which are in the study. I've said it before but Jason's all about bling and bedazzle.

I'd be inclined to keep the original hardware myself but this is a battle I know I will lose. Truthfully, the originals don't function well and the stays don't 'stay' either. And they don't bling.

To appease my guilt for replacing 80 year old fittings, Jason tosses it in a box in the garage so it remains with the Sow's Ear, but really he would have no qualms throwing it in the wheelie bin when I'm not looking!

Image from HERE

brass casement window stay

Glazing casement windows

If you can make things with play dough then you can glaze a timber casement window, according to our Latin-speaking builder, Mr Rooney.

It is so true. Jason replaced a couple of panes of glass on some windows and it was probably the easiest job he's ever had to tackle at the Sow's Ear.

Jason removing the windows.
I told him to take off his shirt because no one would recognise him otherwise, but he didn't listen. He said he was busy...

The first task was to take the windows off its hinges and remove all the old putty and broken glass.

The measurements of the replacement glass was just right, allowing a few millimetres gap on each side of the space.

Glass fitted into the casement window. Checking to see if the size is right. The glass is fitted into the window via the external facing side

This was the moment of truth for me because I was the one who measured the windows and ordered the glass. Phew! Can you imagine the grief I would've gotten if I had stuffed that up?

A bed of Special Putty was laid around the window rebate. The putty is linseed oil based and similar in texture to plasticine.

We used special putty. It costs about $24 for a large tub from the hardware store.

Putty is used to keep the glass in place.

Jason centred the glass onto the bed of putty and made sure it was a snug fit. Another layer of putty was moulded around the glass to seal it in; fingers were used to spread the putty out. Hi-tech we are not.

Afterwards Jason used his 'blunt as his knob' chisel to smooth out the putty, running it along the edges to remove the visible finger indentations.

Smoothed out putty on the casement windows. You can see the excess of putty on the underside of the glass

Some putty oozed out onto the internal facing side of the windows. Jason used his BAHK chisel again to remove the excess. We let the window putty dry out for a couple of hours before re-installation.

The windows are up and they look great. You'll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take a photograph before it got too dark this afternoon!

P.S Thank you to everyone who has voted in the Best Australian Blog 2011 competition. We are still campaigning strongly spreading the Blog-go, Brismod-a-go-go message.

Jason's been practising intensive go-go moves as part of the effort. He's modelled himself on the shirtless dancers in this clip. Too funny.

Arctic glass for casement windows

Cracked glass is not a good look. And we are sporting such a look in the sunroom. A couple of window panes were accidentally broken during installation. Ooops!

I've been hiding the cracked glass in my photographs of the sunroom.  But there is only so long we can keep up the façade of perfect windows. I know, the shame.

Now that painting in the sunroom is nearly finished, the glass has to be replaced.

I called a large window replacement company which quoted us $300 to have someone replace two medium sized panes of glass. After receiving that quote, I mentally delegated the entire job to Jason.

He's a handy kind of a chap...Why can't he do it?

I rang a second place called Decorative Glass which is a family owned business established in 1921 and based in West End. They sell Arctic Glass  - the obscure patterned glass which is typically used in old Queenslander windows.

I ordered two panes of glass to fit the measurements of the windows. I measured twice. Actually, three times, just to be on the safe side.

The guy at Decorative Glass said I needed to measure the windows from the outside and take about 4mm off each measurement to ensure an easier fit. He said most windows are not square so taking off a little more would ensure they wouldn't crack during installation.

Total cost of the glass: $33.

If you peer into the background of this image, you will see one of the windows boarded up with ply. Ha!

This weekend, Jason will install the glass using some trusty window putty. I hope he's reading this. This blog is like his to-do list!

White sunroom

The weekend saw one small section of the sunroom completely transformed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, paint is the most effective way of lifting a room. The new VJ (vertical join) walls instead of fibro and the salvaged hopscotch (thanks Will!) windows help too.

Jason was keen to have this area finished as he likes to clock up wins every now and then in the slow renovating process. It is like an appetiser for the rest of the room which we will tackle over the next few weekends.

Jason is back at work now, satisfied with a productive week at home.

Painted ceiling, VJs and casement windows. I will have to get the heat gun out to scrape back the rest of that back door.

Brass hardware installed on the windows

Brass casement stays added on the windows

Saying goodbye

to our old windows...and passing them on.

Some of the timber casement windows being sorted into pairs

Our mates, Melissa and Richard, who live in the neighbourhood are renovating their timber postwar home and are replacing all their aluminium windows. Their home would have originally had timber casement windows.

The 1970s have a lot to answer for, especially when sliding aluminium windows became highly popular. Poor timber windows were ripped out of older homes without hesitation.

This morning, Richard came around to pick up all the 50s style windows we've removed from the Sow's Ear and he'll be using them for their renovation. We had about 20 or so windows that would match the era of their house.

He said he was quoted  $23,000 to have new timber windows made but it was too much for their budget.

Anyway, they now have our old windows instead. We're happy the windows can be re-used, as we love to recycle and even happier that they are no longer taking up precious under-the-house space.

It is all good!

The casement windows are all in

Hooray! All the casement windows are now installed in the sunroom.

Today, Jason served as apprentice to Mr Rooney, our multi-skilled ("I didn't realise you were a pilot, as well!") builder and helped install the last set of windows.

Casement windows in the sunroom installed

View of windows looking from the bathroom end of the sunroom

There is a lot of finishing off things to do (paint, replacing weatherboards,  flashing etc), but at least the most difficult part of the job is done.

Jason also tested the privacy of the windows after his shower this afternoon and instead of doing the nudie run from bathroom to bedroom, he did the nudie walk. Nothing like streaking with confidence!

This song below is dedicated to Mr Rooney who correctly identified a Russell Morris song on the radio and also identified the producer as Molly Meldrum and song writer as Johnny Young. Top marks, Mr Rooney.

Window Hoods

The window hoods which Jason and Mr Rooney, our friendly builder, made on Australia Day are ready to be hung.

Jason painted them to perfection each evening after work. They have been painted gloss white with the contrasting trim painted in Dulux Peppercorn Rent.

The photos below show the old external  window covering:

Old flimsy window hood. This shot was taken from my bedroom window.

Old window hood photo taken from the front yard

Last Sunday, Mr Rooney took down the old window covering and started to install the new hoods. He soon realised that the scaffolding we had was a fraction too short for him to hang the hoods high enough.

The hoods need to hang higher to allow the window to open easily. Mr Rooney tacked one up as far as his six foot self could reach, but he'll have to shift it up a fraction when we have taller scaffolding.

Window hood on the scaffolding

Window hood left up temporarily until we get taller scaffolding

It should look great when they are finally installed (and when we paint the exterior of the house) and it is a vast improvement to what was there before. 

Timber and tin window hoods on Australia Day

For some people Australia Day 2011 was a sausage sizzle or a cold beer with your mates or even a day at the beach.

For us it was the day two timber and tin window hoods were constructed for the Sow's Ear. It seemed like the Australian thing to do.

This is the window hood on the front of the Sow's Ear.
The new window hoods will match this very simple style.

Jason and Mr Rooney, our expert builder, built two perfect window hoods from scratch to protect our bedroom windows from the weather. They did a marvellous job.

Here is a pictorial of the day:

It started with a plan scribbled on the makeshift work bench and a couple of lattes (very metro of them...)

Putting together the frame of the window hoods

Jason, the apprentice, nailing the timber battens to the frame.
Mr Rooney's laptop was used to calculate the correct spacing for the battens. There is an algorithm which takes the guess work out of it. 

This is gable roll or barge roll.
It is used as a decorative element (as well as for flashing) around the edge of the window hood.
It finishes the window hoods nicely.

The gable roll being nailed onto the window hoods. That's Son #1 doing the honours.

The completed timber and tin window hoods.
Don't they look fantastic?  They will need to be sanded and painted before they are installed over the bedroom casement windows

Well done Jason and Mr Rooney!

Work progress in the sunroom

It's business as usual at the Sow's Ear.

Mr Rooney, our formidable builder, has graced us with his presence most of this week - in between threatening electrical storms...

He's working on replacing all the windows in our sunroom. The new "salvaged" windows will provide us a bit more privacy. You can read about our casement windows here and here if you are new to this caper.

Our only bathroom is located in the sunroom too and Jason has a penchant for doing the nudie run from this room after his shower. Such an exhibitionist, but you knew that already!

The windows will also be consistent to all the other windows in the house and finish the room nicely when we sheet the walls with VJs and paint it.

The first bank of windows being framed-up for the casement windows.
The door on the left is our bathroom

The hopscotch casement windows installed.
That's Jason below admiring Mr Rooney's handiwork yesterday afternoon

Casement window frames

Mr Rooney, our sensitive new-age builder, set up a temporary joinery workshop in our carport this week.

He's been busily building frames for our new old timber windows - by far the best option for installing windows in the "out of square" sunroom.

Timber casement window built into a frame

He's planning to recycle the existing window sills too. They are in good condition and hardwood. Mr Rooney told me that we would be saving an orangutan in the Borneo forest by recycling our existing timber rather than buying the new stuff.

He's a deep thinker for a man with rather nice thighs.

Mr Rooney thinking deeply.
He's like Eldin the philosopher/ painter from Murphy Brown. Remember?

I don't envy him this job though. It looks tedious but he's got a radio to keep him company.  I also wasn't game to offer Mr Rooney lunch or a cup of coffee today, because yesterday he started to feel nauseous and went home sick. He said he was alright up until I offered to make him a sandwich...the thought just made him ill!

Anyway, he's back on track and doing a very fine job.

p.s  Just Martha from Jelly Shane has a dilemma concerning some strange markings on her timber floors. She thought Mr Rooney would know the answer and I forgot to ask him today...Have you any idea Mr R?