~~
Friday 9th 59F. Up at 5am. Tormented by memories. Still dark at 6am. Sunrise at 6.40.
7.00 Slightly misty start to a grey day. I have a painful knee when I descend the stairs. Not due to any known injury. I'll try a gentle walk to see if it helps.
8.00 56F. No pain at all as I walked to the lanes under a uniform overcast. It started to drizzle lightly and kept it up. Though not enough to worry about. My jacket was barely damp on the outside. I was quite damp inside from the high humidity.
A couple of pheasants watched me warily from hundreds of yards away. The hunting season has begun. There were none of the swarms of swallows. Which have been congregating. To rest or zoom about over the last few days. I counted 22, shoulder to shoulder, on a TV aerial only yesterday.
None of the echelons of noisy geese either. All complaining bitterly about the poor navigations skills of the one up front. They seemed to go over. Then head off at a right angle. Before returning in exactly the opposite direction they had originally come from.
I spent the morning removing the oversized bedroom window. With three openers each unit was easy to take down the ladder. I sawed through the outer frame in several places. To make it easy to remove.
Next I cut 2x6" [50x150mm] timber to snugly frame the oversized hole. [Raw opening] This involved lots of toing and froing to the mitre saw with the heavy lumps of timber. Then back up the ladder for another trial fitting.
The upper gable end [all timber above a brick lower wall] proved to be leaning inwards at the top. By quite a bit! I had to push the top of the frame outward by a couple of inches [50mm] to get the frame upright. Then I had to twist the frame slightly to make it parallel with the outer wall surface. The outer frame is now safely fixed in place with 100mm Torx screws. The DeWalt screwdriver is immensely powerful but very noisy!
Now I need to add two more uprights. One on each side of the new window a little over a meter apart. With a suitable gap for insulation and sealing.
The extra timber below will reinforce the space beneath the window. Which, being deliberately smaller than the original, will be raised above the former sill. I don't want to add anything above. Because I want the new window to be as high as possible. The ground rises beyond the drive. Which the window overlooks. Making it possible for drunks to stand and stare up at the window from next door's overgrown lawn. Ask me how I know this.
4.15 64F/13C First sign of sunshine! I have the new window frame flush, levelled, spaced and fixed. I used plastic wedges to hold the frame still. Wooden wedges would have been much better. I am tired now and a bit achy.
17.00 The triple glazing, opener units are in. They were damned heavy while I was balanced on the top rung of the ladder! Trying to simultaneously drop the hung pins into place is difficult at the best of times.
The window on the right has sliding bolts to hold the centre bar in place.
This bar looks perfectly normal when closed. But opens with the right side window. To provide a fire and rescue opening the size of the entire outer, window frame. The window on the left is normal and can be used for ventilation. There is an almost closed, but locked position and a stay limited full opening to 90º.
I should probably provide a fixing for a rope ladder inside. Though it isn't a huge drop to the flower bed under the window. It might still be risky to just let myself just drop from a dangling position. I would probably bang my head on the wall as I landed.
17.15 Perfect timing for a cup of tea! I think I deserve one. 😊
17.45 I have covered the open framework inside. Stapled on doubled, heavy duty polythene. Then temporarily ran the sponge sealing strip around the gaps. Just
to keep the bugs and draughts out overnight. I have a roll of DPM but won't waste it. I'll wait
until I have completed the insulation.
The reduction in light passing through the triple glazing is very obvious. Most noticeable compared to the open gaps on either side. The last two images were taken with flash.
Dinner was mackerel on toast. I was going to have a few mushrooms on the side but that "somebody" had eaten them all.
~~
No comments:
Post a Comment