The Living Room Window Project

ALL THAT GLITTERS....
The living room windows were a total disaster from the beginning.

When I bought the house, I knew there was something odd about the way the radiators were located beneath the windows, but I couldn't figure out what just didn't seem right about them.

HMMMMMM.....SOMETHING'S JUST NOT RIGHT HERE....
Then we took off the moldings and removed what we'd thought was a window seat in order to get at the problem, and that's when the nightmare began.

The first thing we noticed was that the radiator ran under the entire window area. In fact, a portion of the wall had been cut off in order to place one long radiator under both windows. The wall, then was resting on top of the radiator, making that radiator a load bearing part of the wall.

HERE, THERE BE MONSTERS....
Now, we'd planned to remove the radiators and install central heating and air, but how can you remove the radiator when it's holding up a portion of the house?!?

So it sat like this for over a year, and we were too afraid to tackle the problem. We tore out all the walls around the windows. We tore out all the ceilings above. We piled things in front of them, and told ourselves that we'd get back to that problem as soon as we figured out what to do.

IF WE IGNORE IT, MAYBE IT WILL GO AWAY....
It sat like that while the foundation was repaired beneath the area, and still no one wanted to touch the problem. They dug out beneath the windows to rebuild the basement, but still no one did anything to work on that area of the living room. Even the window air conditioner was left in place. There's nothing like denial.

Finally, we realized that we had to bite the bullet and take out the radiator.

The radiator was so enormous, however, there was no way we could simply cut it loose from the pipes and cart it out. That thing had to be dismantled in order to make it movable.

It took two days with a sledgehammer and a hacksaw, but Chuck finally got it busted up enough to carry out in pieces. We moved the stored building materials so that the floor area below the windows could have new joists installed, and then plywood was placed in the area.

Then Chad and Chuck began levelling the floors above the living room, jacking up the joists one at a time. There was still a long way to go, though, once that was finished.

SIX MORE MONTHS GO BY....
New windows were installed in May of this year, but the finish work was still to be done.

FINALLY THIS WEEK....
Conrad and my father worked on the windows. Four days of shimming and tweaking and trying to get things level and flush and flat are paying off. Tomorrow, they'll be putting in the last of the work before Conrad gets on the overnight Greyhound bus back to Minnesota. I'm ecstatic with the results, and can't wait to have my living room finished at last.

TEASER! TEASER! TEASER!
Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of Conrad and Dad's work from this week. Check back for the big reveal!