WDM, IA - Finally Trimming the Windows

We are finally getting our window trim finished. Back in 2009, as we were sitting in the Corpus Christi Aquarium in the middle of January, my sister-in-law called with words no traveler wants to hear: ‘you’ve got a frozen pipe and 2” of water in the lower level.’ She and her husband had come over to our house to check it out and, as he headed for the lower level, he heard running water noises. And, as soon as he hit the bottom, he felt the squish of the water on the carpet.

Both of them rushed around, shutting off the water to the house, grabbing what they could to preserve it and getting everything off the floor. To make a long story short, they saved just about everything. Meanwhile, Gary and I drove home to see the damage. But, they had done so much and Service Pro had done the rest that there wasn’t much for us to do. We drove back to Corpus Christi to continue our travels, putting off the decisions about the lower level for another time. Nothing like procrastination.

That summer, not only did we re-do the flooring and the parts of the walls which had been destroyed, we also decided to replace the dropped ceiling with a regular ceiling, remove a wall and replace 6 windows. Oof-da. (Are we gluttons for punishment or what?) All of this consumed the summer and we got everything done except the trim on the windows. Time to procrastinate and head out for our winter travels.

Meanwhile this is how our windows looked. The yellow stuff is some foam insulation I sprayed between the windows and the 2”x6” studs. Holey, molly, guacamole, look at that dry wall. It was obviously a bit chipped up when we put in the new windows - but, then, isn’t that what trim is supposed to cover? I’m embarrassed that our windows have looked so unfinished for so long and probably shouldn’t be showing these pictures in public but, it’s part of the story. So, here goes.

This year we are remedying this situation. No more procrastination. We hired a craftsman to finish up the trim and we then will get to the painting. To get ready for his work, we moved the furniture out of the way, took pictures off the walls near the windows and removed the blinds. Removed the blinds? In the bedroom? Yep. For two nights, we scurried into bed, either in the dark or bent over double. Best part was the traffic light up the hill which shines in our bedroom window. We always knew when it was ‘green’ for ‘go and ‘yellow’ for caution. ‘Red’ for ‘stop’ was the darkest, and just as we got used to the dark, the green lit up our bedroom again.

Paul, the craftsman, worked right along and finished in 2 1/2 days. The first 2 days were nailing up the trim pieces and filling the holes and cracks. His work was as good as it was swift. We had uneven walls and it wasn’t always easy to get the trim to lie flush against them. He called us down several times to show us and to ask what we wanted him to do. And, here is the same corner after he was done. Nice, smooth, covering all that foam insulation and chipped dry wall. Oops - looks like someone needs to paint. That’s a next week chore.

On the third day, he sanded the wood filler he had put in the nail holes and on the corners. This was not the hand sanding he had told us but he had a small electric sander. No problem with that but. . . We had covered the bedding, chair and the other items in the bedroom to protect them from the sanding. (See picture below.) Next, as he moved down to the living room, we uncovered the bedroom and moved the sheets to the living room to cover the sofas, lights and rug.

Here’s where it got messy, in more ways than one. I left to get a haircut while Gary was busy upstairs vacuuming the bedroom. Paul finished with the living room, moved to the lower level and began to sand. There were 4 windows down there - lots of sanding. We have both our desks down there, lots of paperwork, books, carpeting, lamps, etc. And he sanded, and sanded and sanded.

When we got back down there, everything was covered with a fine film of sand: papers, lamps, chairs, TV, you name it - it was covered. I thought I was back in the desert southwest. At first, I was irate and I was taking it out on the dusting and vacuuming. Boy, was I scouring the dust off. Then I calmed down and realized that we hadn’t told him to tell us when he was moving downstairs. We had kept ahead of him on the previous 2 floors but he had gotten ahead of us on the lower level. He must have thought we didn’t want coverings on anything in the lower level.

Oh, well, did we ever scour that lower level. I cleaned every section of every slat of every set of blinds. Gary vacuumed every inch, twice, and the corners even better.

But, hey, at least it wasn’t 3 miles high like the dust storms which have hit Phoenix. This was no big deal, just a little ‘aw shucks, we should have told him. ‘Silly us.