Picture Windows Pictures

The living room has become a bright, light-filled space. Windows in waiting. The curved one
was under consideration for the space at the peak, but it lost out to the long rectangular one leaning
against the wall, both for looks and because it's Energy Star rated and has a screen. Both are
from the Habitat ReStore.

Outside, looking in.

Inside, looking out.

Cathedral

One nice thing about a DIY reno is that you can figure out what you want as you go. After the front wall of the living room was finished, Tom decided that he wanted to have a cathedral ceiling. So the drywall and the insulation came down...

We bagged up the cellulose hoping to reuse it in another part of the attic.

We took out some of the beams after the ones that were to remain were repositioned and reinforced. You can see the straps that we added at the roof peak and the vent that we cut out up there. We also added hurricane straps where the rafters meet the walls. (And by "we" I mean Tom, of course.)

Up on the roof, building the framework for the vent cap. There are two
layers of screen to keep the bugs etc. out

Getting the flashing in place, about to be fastened down into a vent cap. So far, it hasn't leaked.

Tom painstakingly custom cut styrofoam insulation to fill each void in the ceiling and caulked everything to within an inch of its life. He'll eventually add another layer of styrofoam and drywall.

The windows are now installed in the end wall. In the foreground you can see the window frames that Tom built for the two large panes of glass you can see in the next picture.

We bought these used, but the frames were rotted.

This is one of the outer frames that will go in the back wall to hold the big picture windows.

Tom contemplating the back wall of the living room

The front is looking a little better. You can kind of see the ridge vent cap on the roof.