Home Renovation Update #8 – Dining Room Windows

Come along with us as we renovate our 1946 home. This week’s home renovation update is the dining room windows.

Catch up on our home renovation here:
Update #1
Update #2
Update #3
Update #4
Update #5
Update #6
Update #7

We’ve been moving right along with the home renovation process and trying to get the little things done while there’s still light. The time change has really made this difficult, but at least there’s the weekends!

Things will probably start slowing down a little bit so we can focus on the holidays coming up. My mom and dad recently bought a new house and will be moving sometime next month. They’ll actually be about 5 minutes away from us! My mom is excited, but stressed of course, since this all is happening in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, we’ll be there to help them move and get everything ready. I’m really excited for them!

Our latest home renovation project has been the dining room windows. Since I have a tiny dining room and only two windows, this went rather quickly. It did take a few days because nothing is level or even or easy around here. I’m pretty sure the people that built this house didn’t have any experience. Too bad they didn’t just hop on the Google or watch 500 YouTube videos first. (Oh yeah…no such thing in the 40’s!)

Home Renovation – Windows

We started with the side window because it was the worst. It takes a beating from the weather, so the bottom part was pretty rotten. You can see in the bottom of the picture how bad it was. So that was removed and replaced. My husband made a new one out of a piece of wood, sanded it, primed it, and painted it. The sides of the window were replaced, too.

The shutters we made are holding up really well!!

Here’s the outside after everything was complete.

Now on to the inside!

The wood surrounding the window was removed completely so the old window could be removed.

It was a tad chilly that night so I was hoping this was going to go really fast! Of course that didn’t happen. We ran out of time and had to put the old window back in after everything was measured and ready for the next day.

The new window was installed and the wood pieces started going back up.

The window after one coat of paint.

Now for the back window!

When I moved into this house many many years ago there was an old AC unit in the window. A huge brown ugly thing! It lasted a few years before we finally had to get a new one. It was so old and so heavy that the neighbor had to come over and help my husband get it out!

We had to get a new window unit and the only window available is the back window in the dining room. So I lost a lot of natural light and the ability to see the beautiful tree behind my house.

I was so happy to see that window unit come out! We put in a Ductless Mini Split system so we no longer need the window unit. YAY!

After the window unit came out the new window went in. The outside and inside of the window had to also be repainted. My husband had this ladder going between the front and back porches and a piece of board laying on top. (It’s quite a long way down!)

This is why women live longer than men.

I won’t bore you with putting in the second window since the process was exactly the same as the side window. I will however show you the completed project! Two new windows that open easily and let in a lot of natural light. And I can see the trees!

Now I just have to find time to finally refinish the table and chairs. The set was a Craigslist find for super cheap! I can’t wait to redo it. Christina from Christina Faye Repurposed has some great instructions on her furniture makeovers so I’ll be studying up before I start on my table.

Mini Split System

Since an HVAC system is way too expensive and not an option for our old house, we decided to go with a Ductless Mini Split System. It’s basically a cooling and heating unit that goes in one room. We put ours in the living room and it actually warms and cools the whole house. Smaller units can be placed in every room, but we don’t need the extras.

(If you’re interested you can learn more about mini splits and how they work here.)

Excuse my daughter’s messy computer desk. She thinks she needs to have everything on it for some reason. Actually this is cleaner than it usually is.

This is the outside part of the mini split. It’s actually very quiet!

I was a little skeptical of this thing at first, but it has worked really well so far. Our temperatures this weekend are supposed to get down into the 20’s and teens at night so we’ll see how well it does then.

That’s it for this week’s home renovation update. We are working on the rotting backdoor threshold and surrounding wood pieces now and then we’ll be moving on to something else. I’m excited to get the inside work done, too, since it’s something I’ve been waiting to do for years.

Stay tuned for more updates!!