Keep it in the Fairway

For those of you checking here but not finding any posts and wondering where have I been, the simple answer is, I’ve been locked away in my basement! Now some of my family and close friends will know what that means, but suffice it to say that I’ve been engaged in another home project. And when I’m done, I’ll be sure to unveil it for everyone else.

But seriously, most of my free moments have been spent on that project, with the exception of my occasional local golf excursions, and it has been tough to sit down a post anything. My mind has been on this project so this post will be brief.

And speaking of golf, have you ever wondered what you’d look like if you played golf in the middle of the afternoon on a 108°F heat index day? Well, wonder no more.

Yes that’s me, the exhausted looking one the third from the left. We had just finished playing in an outing June 22nd, the hottest day of the year at that point. The fact that we were even smiling after enduring the “hell on earth” was amazing in itself. I have never drunk so much water over the course of five hours and yet never even had the slightest urge to pee. Scary. Days like this one prove once again that you have to be a little bit out of your mind to play golf.

Most of the home improvement projects that I tackle seem like they should be way easier than what they usually end up. Such was the case as I set out to replace two old, louvered-style aluminum frame windows in our basement with much more energy efficient and attractive vinyl sliding windows.

We’re trying to spruce up the main space in the basement but before we try to do something with the walls it might be nice to upgrade the windows first. Neither of the windows even work (one is totally covered up) let alone keep out the cold air in the winter. So the decision to replace them is a must. This is what they looked like.

And even uglier up close.

So the only real issue was whether to attempt this project by myself or to pay a pro. Well if you’ve followed this blog very much you know how I am about paying others (generally my last option) but when power tools are required to complete a project, it’s usually makes it a slam-dunk. And not only that, how could two things so relatively small be a big deal? Well I was about to find out.

The first hurdle that I had to clear was figuring what actual size of window to get. I was going to go with stock units and not custom-order so there was a limit on choices. My options were basically 15″ X 32″ or 17″ X 32″ based on the local Lowes. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know what the rough opening would end up being since it would be hard to know what amount of concrete would be left after I broke  the aluminum frame out.  And sure the smart move would have been t0 wait until I got them totally out before buying the new ones, but where’s the fun in that? It’s much more fun to guess. So I bought a couple of 17″ X 32″ ThermaStar slider units from Pella.

Next, and obviously the biggest hurdle, was how to actually get the frames out. After all, those babies were part of the concrete and firmly embedded. I’d never done this before, but some of the info that I got from the internet mentioned chiselling all around the frames, cutting/breaking them apart into four pieces and then finally loosening them from the concrete. Sounded good to me.

The first window I followed the above process, but when I finally broke the sill out it left behind big uneven chunks in concrete so I had a serious amount of grinding to try and get it close to flat. I wasn’t anticipating grinding the concrete for the sill, but what was worse was that the rough opening to the left and right was more like 31-1/2″ in a few areas, not the 32″ width that was a minimum. So then I had no choice left but to have to grind and make the rough opening bigger.

Now I could bore you with the next few hours of dirty, dusty, forearm-busting, tedious grinding on the concrete, but suffice it to say that I managed to get through it. But boy you talk about concrete dust everywhere, it was a mess in that basement. (I think I can relate to ancient Roman sculptors now.)

This is what the rough opening looked like after grinding.

If you look real closely at the picture there is no header at the top of the opening that’s the sill plate.  I suppose a frame buried into the concrete really doesn’t need to have much additional support. So then I had to construct a header and figure a way to tie the header into the underside of the sill plate to keep the weather out. Here’s what I came up with. The large flat piece is a section of Hardie board or fiber-cement siding board capped by a piece of treated deck board covered with aluminum coil stock. It’s probably a lot of work to go through, but that’s my lot in life.

The last hurdle to accomplish was to carefully drill some holes in the sash, temporarily set the window in order to mark the holes to be drilled in the concrete rough opening, drill the holes, re-set the window, shim and level the window, secure the window with Tapcon screws and seal up the gaps with Great Stuff for Windows.

Now it’s starting to look like a window.

And here’s how both windows look before the finishing touches.

I’d love to tell you that this project was a real piece of cake, but it was very tedious and took significantly longer to complete than I planned. If I had to do it again, I’d suggest custom-ordering the windows to fit the opening to save on the hassle of having to grind the concrete. But as far as my projects go I was pretty satisfied overall.

Everybody is really nervous these days. What will the future bring? Will the economy crash again? Will I have a job? Will the government go too far? Etc. And for its part, the secular world eventually comes around with its versions of hope for humanity. But being a Christ-follower I happen to think that the best advice is only found in one book – the Bible. But not everyone facing their own personal dilemmas race to flip open their copy of the Bible to find out God’s perspective on things. (I wish that they would.) So when I run across a fairly decent worldly attempt at inspiration and motivation, I like to share it for those that are more attracted to such things.

This is a three minute long “smovie” from the website smileandmove.com. Pretty catchy, eh? But it is a very positive message meant to make you stop, think and reflect. So let me know if you connect with it. Then if you’re looking for deeper inspiration, crack open that Bible again.

All Spring it has been a real pain to have to mow the grass like every four days with all the rain that we’ve been having around here. Grass grows like weeds when it’s wet. Literally. I suppose I should be grateful for rain and that there are other parts of the country that would love all the precipitation that we’ve had in Missouri. But when it comes to grass mowing, give me the dog days of August when the grass is dormant. Takes like 10 minutes to get the job done.

So it never dawned upon me that our plan to put a new deck on the back of the house might actually assist me with the grass mowing dilema. As a bonus, this time around I actually get to sit back and watch someone else provide the labor So on Saturday the first phase of the deck project got going with the removal of the old concrete slab patio.

Here’s the before and after photos.

Our back porch before demolition

Our back porch after demolition

At first I was pretty upset with condition that the yard was left in after the Bobcat did its dirty work (also note the broken basement window to the left of the electric meter). But then the silver lining in the dark cloud became apparent. I don’t have as much grass to mow now!

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am a huge, pro-free market and pro-capitalist when it comes to matters of the economy and business. May the best corporation and country win! So when it comes down to my own personal pocketbook, I do admit that I struggle to purchase something “made overseas” that is the cheapest and I usually don’t have a problem with spending a little extra for US-made goods. I do so knowing that my local, state and national economies depend on where and how I spend my dollars. And I think most people think the same, but the big question has always been where do we draw the line with the spending a little extra?

Now the current problems at Chrysler, GM and even Ford, are way more complex than a blog could ever cover, but part of their problems certainly involve the distinct choices that US consumers have been making the past 10 years when they have gone out to purchase a new car. And lately, it hasn’t even been about the buying the low-priced “foreign” product as American-made autos are very competitively-priced. Evidently the minds and philosophies of a large portion of American consumers have slanted towards Toyotas and Hondas etc. And if those automobiles are so clearly superior and provide the best overall “value” to consumers, can we really blame them for the demise of the Big 3?

Maybe. And on that note I’d like to leave you with a thought-provoking quote from a recent Starbucks email that I received.

“Everybody is looking for value, but value doesn’t just mean what’s cheapest; it’s about what’s best for consumers, their families, their communities and the world around them.”

It’s making me think about how I make my next purchase. How about you?

Now before you read any further, please be advised that no one under the age of 35 is allowed to read the rest of this post. (You wouldn’t be able to relate to it if you did.)

My daughter-in-law posted on Facebook the other day that she couldn’t believe how quickly her and my youngest son’s one year wedding anniversary had arrived. I think she said that the time has just ”flown by.” I wonder where did the last 30 years go and what happened to the decade of the 1970’s. Yes, I know where they literally went. But don’t you miss the ’70’s, even a little?

Most of you may not even want to go back to the ’70s, and I can certainly understand those of you in the “not-wanting-to-look-back-but-always-look-forward” crowd. But seriously, weren’t the ’70s fun?

OK, so the country had a few problems, the war in Vietnam, problems with the economy, political scandals, student protests, gratuitous sex and drugs. But hey wait, look around, we still have all that. Do you know what the 70’s had that we just don’t have anything close to today? Disco!

So in honor of the ’70s and disco music, I request that you stop what you’re doing right now, take a couple of minutes out of your busy day and step back 30 years or so to a different time. I hope that you enjoy your trip and let me know if you enjoyed the diversion.