Today we completed one more step on the path to a finished kitchen at the farm. Since kitchens are usually well lit and open places—who wants to cook, clean, and serve food from a shadowy little corner anyway?—we had decided to install two new windows: one behind where the sink will be and the other about 18 inches further down the counter. The latter of which was actually installed where a preexisting window used to be found, but owing to it low height off the floor we elected to replace it with a shorter one so that the counter can continue underneath it.
The preparations went smoothly and the framing nailer once again paid for itself in both ease and efficiency. Once framed we secured the Tyvek House Wrap™ and tar wrap around the window opening before finally leaving a bead of caulking. The windows simply slid into place and were nailed in place with 2” box nails, galvanized of course. With the window having been secured, I went to work on the trim. We’ve found that the Azek [ref]See their site here.[/ref] synthetic trim board is both easy to work with and quite attractive for the farmhouse. Those were simply nailed in place with 2 1/2 “ galvanized finish nails. On the top I placed an aluminum window cap and wrapped up the exterior part of this project with some more caulking.
The interior finish work will wait until we actually get all the wiring done, insulation in place, and can actually start on the sheetrock. But all in good time (yet hopefully before it gets too cold out!).
As always, the materials you use are key to any project. If you try to use cheap materials–and you try to be cheap with them–then you are doomed to a painful experience; whereas if you use proper materials in a proper way, the project will work out much more in your favor. These windows here are Andersen 400 Series. It is true that the 400 series are more costly than their 200 series and 100 series brethren, the rough openings decided to work within demanded it. Rather than skimp out on a cheaper manufacturer or try to butcher the existing wall to our will [ref]The walls are 16″ on center with truecut lumber rather than dimension so we had a space of 30″ to fill. The closest match in the 200 Series for replacement windows required a 30.5″ rough-in to work. So rather than replace an existing stud (a stud that has been there for 120+ years) we opted for the 400 Series since the next smallest 200 series was just 28″ and that was just too narrow.[/ref], the project worked out so well by making the smart investment early on so we don’t pay for it later on down the road.