Friday, July 19, 2013

The House Rests

Not much to say except that the brick work is done on the exterior, but only half the shutters are installed. We were surprised yesterday when we went to the house and found some windows cannot be opened at all..  no up, no down. They are stuck unless you apply very serious force, and then don't move much. Perhaps half the windows in the house are like this now.. a few are cracked. It seems this house is really settling in full force, especially after brick and drywall.. Wondering if the weight of the brick in particular is crushing this little house. It turns out, apparently, not the case.  This is a standard part of the building process. Houses settle, and windows get adjusted, replaced, and greased as needed.. all is well.

10 comments:

  1. The brick and shutter color combo looks very good. Were there any little nobs/locks on the windows?

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    1. Thanks, it turned out nicer than we expected, despite our initial worries.. There are two little locks on the top of the bottom glass panel. You can see one on the left window behind the 2nd panel from top left.

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  2. We were told at walk though that new Ply-Gem windows need to be opened and closed forcefully at the beginning because the seals are so tight. (A side effect of being energy efficient?) I still feel as though I am going to break my windows when I close them, but I am assured that isn't likely. They also will apparently "soften" with time, and will be easier to open and close. Perhaps that simply it? But certainly something to ask!

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    1. That is an interesting answer you got. I wonder how valid it is though, because after framing we had some windows that were difficult to open, and we pointed them out and they fixed the issue and the windows would open smoothly, silently and easily. The case here is different though, the windows in the picture feel as if they are being crushed by the structure around them. They really cannot be moved at all. Brute force would dislodge them inches up or down. I really think that the brick is leaning on the structure and causing these issues. But we'll ask and see what happens.

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  3. The exterior is looking good!!

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    1. Thanks.. there is more where that came from :) much much more!

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  4. Your exterior looks great!! We have absolutely no problem with the windows. I do like that they flip open for easy cleaning.

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    1. Thanks :) Ease is what we are hoping for, can't imagine needing to fight with windows to work. It is very nice how they flip open. Never seen that before but like it very much.

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  5. We had some issues with our windows too. They installed all of our windows on the bottom floor before framing the top floor so several windows on the bottom floor were cracked and many of them are still hard to move up and down, but our second floor windows move great!

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    1. Thanks for pointing that out. I don't see a reason why one has to to struggle with windows. If it doesn't glide gracefully within the rails then it is not done right and it is not acceptable. For example, we had pointed out a window that was tight after the windows went in. They fixed it. Now it is one of the few windows after brick and drywall that still operates perfectly.. So the issue is legitimate and possible to fix. We will put it on our punch list for sure.

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