Windows and Kitchen Floor

There is definitely a sense of community inside Camp Washington. One of my fellow board members, Lacey, is tackling her own fixer upper project and several months ago shared she’d be removing  some pine flooring in her house.  This week she got started on that project and drop by my house to let me know I could come and get it, if I still needed it.  I cringe every time I look at my kitchen floors, so I most definitely do.  Sunday I picked it up and spent the afternoon pulling nails.

Her boards are wider than mine (same width as my upstairs floors), so I’ll need to rip them down to size as I did when I used my boards to patch holes in other areas downstairs.  My former neighbor did this work for me last time, but now that I’m elevating myself out of novice carpenter to advanced, I’ll tackle this myself.  Last year I caught a great deal on a router and router table, but had never taken it out the box.  This project will give me my first chance to use it.

I also got two of the first floor windows dressed; rear of guest bedroom and side living room.  If these two are any indication the prepping for installation is going to take much more effort than the upstairs.  The few contractors I did use on this project showed no regard for my piles in the basement.  They slung my organized piles around, stood on top of them, so my fears of damage manifested.  Both of those windows had significant pieces cracked off.  Fortunately, in both cases I found the cracked off piece laying on the ground near by.  Hope that holds true moving forward.

These pieces were more than dusty, so Murphy Oil soap wash down was just the first step.  The house had aluminum windows that must have been pretty drafty as these pieces of wood were riddled with staples and adhesive weather strips.

They also had screws that left large holes, so not only did I have to glue broken pieces back on I had to use wood putty to fill large holes.  All this extra work made what was a day project upstairs, multiple days.

Once I got them cleaned with the denatured alcohol I could see that this wood was also dryer than upstairs and even water damaged (I’m sure sweating occurred around these windows exposing wood to moisture).  Since I knew the putty I used was going be highly visible I decided to try something different.  I have about a half-quart of the custom color Zar Gel Stain used on the front door left, so I decided to rub all the pieces with steel wool dip in the stain.  After a day of letting the stain dry, I rubbed them with the Howard’s Feed and Wax.  Miraculous results.

Two down, nine to go.