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It’s Not Vented Rip It Down

Do you ever watch the TV show Holmes on Homes?  We do.  All the time.  Not that we ever watch it on purpose, it’s just one of those shows that’s always on.  A few years ago, right after we bought our little fixer upper of a home, we were watching an episode when Holmes started yelling in the homeowner’s bathroom, “It’s not vented….rip it out!”  Referring to the shower.  For some reason, that line stuck with us.  And for an even odder reason, we tend to yell it at each other when we’re working on house projects.  #oddcouple  Case in point, blog topic du jour, our front porch demo.

Oh yes, with ever sash pull that came out and with every rotted piece of trim annihilated, we yelled “IT’S NOT VENTED…RIP IT OUT!”  Our poor neighbors.  I don’t know how they deal with us.  Anyway, the porch demolition day was a breeze!  Maybe it’s because this was the first demo day we’ve had in over a year….or maybe it’s because this is the first demo day that didn’t involve plaster and lathe (you can read all about our previous plaster and lathe removal project when we gutted out our master bedroom).  But this demo day was all about (1) removing all the porch windows and (2) removing all the rotten, nasty wood.  We started by removing all the sash stops….both the lower sash stops:

And the upper sash stops (go baby go!):

Now, for normal windows, ones that are functioning, when you remove the sash stops the windows would theoretically fall out.  But with our porch windows there was water damage and warping and windows painted shut (my bad on that one).  So it took a little bit of elbow grease to get those windows out.  Thankfully I brought my muscle to demo day. #willworkforbeer

Colby’s a window removal champ.  And for the sake of full disclosure, Colby has the ins.  He’s a window guy.  As in it’s literally his job.  He used to be the Andersen Window sales rep in our area before he switched over to the Brosco side of his company’s operations.  Now he sells Windsor Windows.  So Colby knows windows…like KNOWS windows.  He’s always getting called out on service calls or sent to window trainings in North Carolina.  So this little project, which I can see how it could scare off some people, is like second nature to him.  He even knows windows enough (and old homes enough) to number the windows and their locations after removing them to make sure each gets put back in their right spot since there’s nothing even, level or square in our home.

After removing the windows, apparently I got a wild hair.  I have a few of those mixed in with the (gulp) gray hairs!  I can’t say I was ever in love the lower paneling.  I wasn’t even “in like” with it.  “IT’S NOT VENTED!”  Out it came.  We were kind of hoping to find old balusters behind the paneling but no such luck.  But we did find some old planking that I’m envisioning sanding down and painting.

While ripping down the paneling we did find a little surprise.  Sadly, it wasn’t a can full of money (we’re still waiting to find that) but a ginormous old bees nest.  Nasty (she says in her best “honey badger” voice)!

The only other thing we removed in our little demo project was the old, aluminum that was covering up the wooden sills.  Here’s the before:

And after removing it:

I wasn’t kidding when I told you we had a water/rot problem going on.  Theoretically, the aluminum should have been protecting the wood sill from water damage.  Instead, the aluminum was up against the sash, the silicone bead wore out, the sash/aluminum warped and tilted towards the windows, resulting in water seeping underneath the aluminum and pooling along the bottom of the sash.  Hence the rot.

In the span of a day we managed to take down all the windows, remove all the rotten sections of wood, and make the paneling disappear..  We still have to take down the porch ceiling, but one thing at a time.  Rain was looming.  Leave it to us to pick the rainiest weekend of the summer to remove and repair our porch windows….doh…so we didn’t get around to porch ceiling removal.  Windows first.

Our porch looks so weird without any of the windows!  I kind of like it.  I’m almost sad that we’re putting the windows back in it.  But I love those windows and their old hardware.  Besides, we have the deck for outdoor living space and it will be nice to have an enclosed space for chilly fall days or rainy spring mornings.  Ah…I can taste that porch coffee now!  I may like the windows, but I’m pretty sure Goose is going to miss having a front of the house perch for squirrel lookout!

He spent the day on high squirrel alert!  Next up on the porch renovations, wood repair.  You can kind of get a sneak peak of the process in the Goose pic above with all that putty on the old, wooden window sill.  But we have a few other quick and easy DIYs coming at you as well.  And of course more Goose cuteness!

Comments

    1. Yes! And I thought I was the only one who watched that show! And totally agreed…demo is a sure fire agression getter outer!

    1. I know, it pains me just a little bit to be putting the windows back in. But at least they will work now so we can swing them wide open whenever we feel like it and close them up if it’s raining.

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Angie's Roost Campbell Family in front of home in 2021

Hi there! We're the Campbells. We traded in Maine city living for the country life in Vermont. You'll find us here fixing up a circa 1781 historic home, growing our own food, and filling this home with the memories and things that matter. Read more about us...

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