During our many adventures in home building, my husband, Fred (primarily Fred) and I have built homes of wood, stone, and adobe, that were accomplished courtesy of his architectural, engineering, and design skills, along with my organizational and mud and mortar mixing skills.  Darn good with a shovel, water, concrete, clay, and sand, and although together we have installed a good many windows, we have never removed or replaced windows.  That requires a different skill set all together.  Another skill set is sitting and waiting, while someone else does the work.  Not easy for either of us, but on rare occasions, it has to be done.  And so it was this week when we had six rather old and fogged windows replaced.

Watching the two men work without bothering them was a dance in itself, but listening to drills and saws and hammers, and not one piece of glass breaking was a pleasure.  They clearly had done this many times and it was quite a routine for each window.  First, the old window, complete with the window frame and all its constituent pieces, had to be removed.  A combination of skill and brawn, and knowledge of precisely how to extract each part at the right time was impressive.  

In the photograph below, the gent has cut part of the center mullion, and is in the process of prying remainders from the base.   

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Removing the window head requires removing the sides first, which is what happening in this photograph.

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You have to be very sure of yourself to remove the head, with eyes closed, which is crucial to keeping crud from falling into your eyes.

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Window trim is being cut to surround the window in this image.  Although pre-measuring can be done for the window itself, each piece of trim has to be measured precisely to ensure a proper fit.   

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Meanwhile, outside work is being done for a proper seal against wind and weather.  The caulking master below could have been rendering something between a Jackson Pollack and Van Gogh.  An adhesive piece of thin film on the window allowed him to flick leftover caulk and tape directly on the window without hitting the stucco.  He took errant pieces of it and placed those carefully with his fingers onto the film.  

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10 hours later, after numerous trips in and out of the house and up and down the stairs, we now have six new, fully functional, clear beautiful windows that replaced the others that had seen thirty years of use by a good many owners.  We came out of the experience with a new appreciation for the skills and hard work that people in the renovation part of the construction industry do every day.

Thanks to each of you for reading, and to Jean & Sam, Barbara F. R., Terry T., Brenda, M. Fred B., Steve, and Bill and Sue for commenting, last week.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image©