12.19.2015

Well...it was bound to happen.  We woke up to about an inch of snow.  We hate it for building purposes, but we know how blessed we have been with weather this year.  By comparison, in the paper the other day it said that in 2014 we had 21.1 inches of snow from November through mid-December.  This year it was 0.  Pretty incredible.

It was really blustery this morning too - when Jim went out, he wore his Carhartt coveralls for some extra warmth.  He wanted to do a little prep work before I headed out. 

But he ran into a snafu.  Every window we have put in so far, Jim has just said he was grateful it fit into the rough opening.  Jim is so precise in all he does that I never gave that a second thought.  But as he was finding the right windows for the front of the shop, he discovered that he had made the plans and rough opening for a 53" tall window and the window was 57".  Again, if you are working with wood, fixes would be much more doable but steel is a whole different beast.

He came home for lunch to look over his quote request for the windows - and found that Lowe's made the mistake.  His request was for a 53" window and a 57" was ordered.  The fellow that did the order is no longer with Lowe's so Jim will have to talk to his rep.

However, it is what it is at this point.  Ordering a new custom window will take months.  So Jim is already coming up with a plan to try and modify the opening. 

By the time I got to the site after lunch, Jim was finalizing his plan.  Thankfully, the header for these windows was at the top of the wall; otherwise, it would have been impossible.  And if the window would have been too wide instead of too tall, we would have had to order a new window.  So it was the best of a bad situation but now the work had to be done to make it work.

First he cut 4" off of the plywood sheathing on the outside of the wall.

Then he took off the top of the window frame.  If you remember earlier posts, Jim made these window frames a work of art - who would have thought he'd have to take them apart?

Then the hard parts.  Jim had to use his grinder to cut off the steel - without cutting into any of the surround steel window frame.  He first cut the sides...

Then he put a shim in the side piece to hold it out away from the frame so he could cut off the rest.

The middle one was the really tough one - because of the way the window frame is, this piece is above the sheathing.  So Jim had to really be careful not to cut through the sheathing too.

All the pieces cut off!

Putting the frame back together...

All done - you'd never know he had to totally take it apart!

Now that it was the right size, we were able to put the window in!

Jim used his heat gun to help the membrane stick in the cold temperatures.

The first shop window is in!  What a relief that Jim's fix worked.  Unfortunately, there are two more shop windows that need the same fix.  But at least he's done it and knows the procedure.  Then he'll have to pick up this topic with Lowe's.

Even though it was getting dark and really cold, we decided to put one more ceiling joist in.  These next joists require blocking so that Jim has a flat surface to attach the joist.  It's a two-part block - piece of stud first inside the rafter and then a piece of track.

The joist is in place - Jim will have to go back and finish fastening all these joists but it's good for now.

 

It was good to get home - the winds were very strong (gusts to 30 mph) which made it feel really cold.

 

Kyle and Julia are coming in late tonight to spend some early Christmas time with us.  Hopefully they have good travel weather - it will be good to see them!

 

High 32/Low 25 (wind chill 19) - first snow!