Randall's Blog

I have been working on a new project. It was Andy's idea originally to make the porch on the back of the garage into a greenhouse. I had the people who replaced the windows save the the old ones because I thought they might come in handy. This project was the perfect use for them. The porch on the back of the garage was used as a pool lounge area (at least by the looks of the items left behind by the people who owned the house before us).

They left a lot of pool things and a stereo. The duck has been looking forward to using this area as a tiki bar - and this may still be possible but I wanted a place to grow greens when the weather gets cold again and start plants in the Spring. I'm late this year with gardening but I should be well set up for next year. I had to purchase windows that would open to provide some ventilation. I got two 48" by 48" sliding windows for this.

I went for the easy, pre-finished siding - it's primed and ready to go without a lot of fuss. The second window went on the other side. These were pretty easy to install. I decided to re-use an aluminum storm door that I had taken off the back of the house. I had saved it and again, this was the perfect use for it. The only problem was it was about a foot too tall for the space. I had to take it apart at the bottom and cut it down to size and then put it back together. I had to relocate one of the hinges as well. This process took a lot of time but I was pretty happy with final result.

The last part was the long wall that would have the salvaged windows. I had to trim the windows to a standard width to make the process easier. They were close but not the same. My portable table saw was just big enough for this process. I also set up a few jigs to bend sheet metal for flashing.

I set the matched frames on top of each other resting on a new "sill" I formed using a specially cut 2x4 (cut with my new band saw) and a piece of flashing. This was done for 8 sets of windows. I ran out of ones that were the same height and so I had to put two pairs in that were a little taller. It worked out fine, though. I even brought my mom outside today to watch for a little while because it was so nice.

I still have a little trim work to do, some caulking and painting, but it's mostly done!

R