Chickychookchook
36953
655
22
We bought this cabin from 1974 in 3 acres in the woods in 2021, already on well and septic. We’ve taken it off grid with solar and wood heating. Now the windows and siding which were original to the house. Hubs did the tear off of Masonite siding (penny nails every 10 inches) ?. We pulled out 8 of the 9 windows.Hubs is 6ft for reference.
First window in! We bought local manufactured windows- bit for costly but they understand our winters and E glass needs. Awesome quality and oh did they set easily.
Local inspector stopped by- chooks are great for tick control.
LOOK AT THAT VIEW!!!! First bedroom window in- casement for egress. This was the first time we were able to open a window in this bedroom. The old windows were cloudy and leaked so much!
House wrapped windows. Cats were moved to the basement for a couple of hours to keep them from escaping. What about bugs? I set up fans blow towards the openings- it worked for the mosquitos and stinging insects.
I couldn’t get over the clarity. Old windows were all cloudy, cracked, with rotten wood. Very crappy. These are amazing.
Front of the house. Look at this guy go! My husband can do just about anything it seems. Fire place- sure. Finish basement- on it! Solar panels- ahhhh let’s hire that out. Our goal from 2019 was to be in an off grid cabin in the woods in 5 years. Hubs got us there in fall of 2021. Now our goal is put up a “shop” building and make the house our own (new 1 more custom window done estimated cost of $5k alone) and sustainable within 5 years. The windows and siding will carry us pretty close to goal. We will need a new well in the 5 years which is a gamble because of our water quality in the area. We are slowly getting the siding (steel, log cabin style) on. Hubs ended up with a bad skin infection from this demo- took an old window to the shin- which slowed him down a bunch. Winter comes early here, should have it done by Oct 1.
Final window (heaviest) was a double hung slider for the dining room. Butters really like the open view. She is a Great Dane for reference.
Cat tax- Buzz is taking a selfie.
cuttysark
Thank you for sharing your experience. This is Simply the Best!
rbudrick
I didn't know there were ticks in Australia. They are probably the size of crabs, venomous, and give you Limes Disease-flavored AIDS.
ElusiveThing
Huge project, but that place looks positively heavenly! Good luck!
SciFiGuy2018
Good luck on your dreams!
CypherMarz
Nice job would love to see some more pics of things being done around the cabin
LjubljanaJeNajlepseMestoNaSvetu
Septic can (should) be eventualy replaced by a household active wate water processor and than you can reuse that water for.urrigation.
unfriendlybastard
Props to your man for lifting & mounting those on his own. That's not light work.
Craizie
Remember folks, if the ladies dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
Chickychookchook
Red Green is often quoted at our house.
Craizie
It's a fantastic show!
UnitConversionBot
6ft ≈ 1.8 metres
UnitConversionBot
10 inches ≈ 25 centimetres
CedricDur
He's a keeper, put a ring on h-... Oh, wait. Good job!
SciencePetsComputers
Chook is Australian/New Zealand slang for chickens
DaveSamsonite
Marvin Windows are made in Warrior, MN - so they would not be a local brand in Australia or New Zealand.
Chickychookchook
Also slang for chickens in South Africa! A dear friend of mine is from SA and her nickname for me is chicky chook
LordNoKids
Why does the building get a warm blanket?
Chickychookchook
Our avg winter temp is -30 F….so everyone loves a warm blanket!
randomwalrus
Because it is loved.
Ricdesan
I salute you sir having replaced all 12 in our house over the last 5 years!
Hammerwell
No compressing band in the window frame/house connection?
whoatherebigfella
Did I miss it, is this in Wisconsin?
whoatherebigfella
I just saw the post of Voyagers National Park, so Minnesota then?
Chickychookchook
Northern MN- just south of Canada. Middle of no where. It’s awesome
whoatherebigfella
Sounds awesome!
WB4DAD
Butters is my favorite !
Chickychookchook
Mine too!!
Over400
Have you seen these lying around?:
Chickychookchook
Nope. Just tackle boxes
Over400
THE CULT OF THE TREE! THE CULT OF THE TREE! THE CULT OF THE TREE!
scottgarland12
You’ll be thrilled with the performance of vinyl windows
JRaven419
#7 He handles his caulk well.
YesButMaybe
Nice work, @OP!
For anyone tackling this type of work, it's easiest to cut the house-wrap corner to corner where it covers the window opening (vs cut along the lintel and sill). The 4 resulting triangular flaps can be pulled inwards and fastened. While this doesn't affect the protection by the house-wrap different from what OP did, it can facilitate an easier window install as you don't have any edges to make sure they are tucked in or in the "right" place.
VodkaReindeer
I hope he does better job of attaching it to the wall than my dad this. It fell off when I kicked a plastic ball into it
Chickychookchook
That is terrible! Yeah these suckers are well mounted no wiggle.
Fancyjester
Looks like a hell of a handyman. Rooting for y'all.
timbit1000
Given the age make sure you don't touch the popcorn ceiling without testing it first
marsgoose
I'm not gonna tell anyone it's safe and they should mess with it. But I will say that personally I wouldn't think twice about doing one house with a respirator. It's not ebola raining down on you.
Bigbuhnuhnuh
Asbestos?
oldguyexlurker
1st have it tested for. If it's there, do it right. Not just a respirator. An Asbestos-rated one. A disposable, full-body protective suit. Disposable covers for floor and walls. No fan to stir shit up. Wrap it all up. Then find the appropriate disposal site for asbestos. It's only dangerous when friable and inhaled. It becomes friable when disturbed/broken up.
rubypilgrim
Spray it well with water first. Keeps the dust down and it will be less friable.
oldguyexlurker
YES! FOrgot that, thanks.
timbit1000
yup, very common in popcorn ceilings and was only banned later.
Chickychookchook
Good news- no asbestos! However, I will not be scraping that shit show
MadamPuddifoot
#8 ummm is butters my baby's mom?!
Chickychookchook
She never got to have a litter of her own but she came from a litter of 9 pups. Maybe sisters? Butters is 4 yo
MadamPuddifoot
So Bay is a mix, but she was from a litter of 11 one day and then one more the next day.
Chickychookchook
Oh wow! She is beautiful. I bet she is a sweetheart!!
MadamPuddifoot
Thank you! So is yours 😍 and yes, she's my very intuitive, very sweet velcro dog 🥰
Jackrabbitry
Where is this?
Chickychookchook
The middle of nowhere peat tundra
DaveSamsonite
I live in Minneapolis and I have a summer house on the north shore of Lake Huron. It’s in a low pop’n area and it’s very difficult to find contractors, so I am familiar with needing to become self sufficient. I bought and installed one window last yr, but I did not realize the old one had a very sloped rough opening and I also estimated the wall thickness too low so I made sort of a nightmare for myself to install it and apply trim. In the end it came out fine but stressful.
DaveSamsonite
The root cause was that I should have removed the old window and gotten the actual detailed measurements of the RO; but it took 15 months for the new window window to be made and I didn’t want take it out and then having to reinstall it. Plus it rained for months straight.
Chickychookchook
The lead time on windows and siding were over 3-4 months each. Then sat for nearly 9 months while we waited for the snow to stop and everything to thaw. It’s been a lesson in patience. I applaud anyone that takes on these massive projects. Lake Heron is a helluva long ways from MN- that must have been a massive trip every time.
FussyZeus
So question (maybe more for your hubbs): How awful is it to do windows? We need them and I'm quite handy, done a couple of doors and a patio door, but windows intimidate me a little.
Chickychookchook
It was out of necessity we did our own windows. We did have a professional come measure and then hubs spent months studying and used his work as practice. It went very very well. But yes. Lots of reservations but we couldn’t find a contractor that would do it.
DaveSamsonite
It’s much easier when you don’t have second floor windows to manage as they can be very heavy
DaveSamsonite
It’s very important that flashing & water intrusion barriers around windows be done correctly and the installation methods for doing that are not so simple. You also want to be sure the windows are very squarely mounted and plumb. Plus when you order the windows, you want to make sure the inside extension jams are the right width for your walls, and that you have the correct angle for the sills. I do essentially all of my own DIY work, but I have windows professionally installed.
DaveSamsonite
Generally speaking, professional contractors will have a better discount and purchasing the windows as well because they buy a lot of them. If you’re only doing a couple of windows, and they’re on the ground floor, and you’re really diligent about looking at YouTube videos on flashing and water intrusion barriers it is possible to do it yourself. Windows are very heavy, it’s very easy to damage them, and it’s very easy to install them wrong. Buyer beware.
Chickychookchook
The contractor wanted $12k plus the cost of windows just to demo and install windows. Marvin did right by us.
FussyZeus
Yeah those are basically all the points that are dissuading me. I am handy but I try and be cognizant of my limits and hire out what I’m not comfortable doing. Thank ya internet stranger.
DaveSamsonite
You are welcome! I evaluated several contractors for my window replacement project and went with a high end home remodeler as I also needed to add two windows and update some trim. I did not select Anderson because of how they basically use caulk instead of removing siding and flashing the entire rough opening. If your house is 100% masonry their approach is great. It also saves me $35,000 and I got the two new windows. They installed top of the line Marvin windows.