Fire Breathing Dragon

Zo has a Bow

Cutie.

Tampa

Erica's back in the Sunshine State. This was my walk home from the office. Beautiful weather today.

This "New" House

They didn't actually finish the roof until this past Tuesday. They didn't have enough flashing to finish up and had to come back.

We put the awnings back up yesterday.

Back in Denver 48 hours later

Erica got back home around midnight on Wednesday night.

She is wiped out. But lather, rinse, repeat next week for a trip to Tampa.

Miramar, FL

Erica flew into Florida late last night for work.

In the Halloween Spirit

Zoey is cozy in her Halloween fleece.

New Roof Day 3

The back of the house is finished! On to the front.

We had snow on the ground yesterday morning, so day 2 was a late start. We are hopeful they finish up today.

We are secretly happy they are working for a third day. We had plans to be working out in the front yard. Not sure we could handle another weekend of 6-8 hour days of work. Now we have a good excuse.

If you look down the driveway at the garage, you can see the new shingles. We went darker with black walnut.

Special Delivery

We are getting a new roof this week.

Gate Update

Chris finished up the gate yesterday.
We were both fast asleep by 8pm last night.

Filled In

A clean slate for spring planting.

Outline

This is what we decided on for the new edging layout. The garden expansion isn't quite as big as we were envisioning, but we are okay with that!

Form & Function

Chris installed his bottle opener and had to try it out immediately.

Zoey Likes the New View Too

This may or may not be the last window picture I post :)

Our house is still not put back together from the install. Hoping to have everything back to normal tonight.

Windows are In!

The windows are all in, it is 7pm and the crew just left. The floors and driveway are cleaner now than before they started. 

We did a walk through of every window with the foreman and all windows and sashes were left in spotless condition.

The windows look awesome. They are Terratone on the outside and White on the inside. The grids replicate the original window grids, they are between the glass for easy cleaning, they all have screens that you can barely see and we don't have to deal with storm windows anymore!

Plus, Sherwin Williams carries Andersen paint colors, so we can get matching paint in Andersen Terratone for the rest of our house trim.

Chris says these are much better quality than the brand new windows in the Fort Collins house. I don't want to put any window coverings back up, I want to see the windows!

Just look at how nice they look:

Before & After: Outside

Before & After: Inside

Awesome Sunrise This Morning

The bright side to an early morning meeting.

New Windows

Today was Day 1 of 2 of window installation.  The windows we had were original to the house and 74 years old.  That meant they were single paned steel casement windows.  The windows had storms, but they were in bad shape. The windows themselves were not in the best shape.

We had a window restoration contractor come out to the house to take a look.  He said they were not well maintained over the years.  Paint had peeled and the steel had started to corrode.  The windows didn't operate well, many didn't open, and at least one didn't even have hardware anymore.  To restore them, the sashes could be removed and taken back to his shop to be stripped, refinished, and painted.  The sidelights, which could not be removed would have to be restored on site.  And, since our house is elderly, there was a 99.9% chance of lead paint and asbestos involved.  So, the house would have to be taped off around each window so they could be restored, mitigation protocols would have to be used and paperwork would have to be filed with the EPA.  After restoration we would need new storm windows. All at the low, low price of $2,500-$3,000 per window plus $500-$750 per window for new storms.  We have 11 windows on the main floor.

So, we started looking into replacement windows.  We didn't want white vinyl windows with our dark brick.  A friend of mine who is a contractor mentioned fiberglass windows.  There are quite a few companies that offer fiberglass type windows: Milgard, Renewal by Anderson, Pella, Marvin, etc.  after some research, we chose Renewal by Anderson.  They weren't the most expensive, they weren't the cheapest, they got good reviews on-line, great customer service, and most importantly, they employ their installation crews and have a transferable lifetime warranty.

All but 3 windows are in place and the crew has been great. They answered all my questions, have been super careful around the house, and we are really happy with  how the windows look already, and they aren't even finished yet.  No more cold air blowing on the backs of our heads while we watch TV and they look SO nice.  We wish we would have done this sooner!  Everything will wrap tomorrow.

All Done. Except for the Gate.

View into the backyard from where the to-be-completed gate would be.

What an improvement for the better!  We hope the neighbors like their new view as well.  Check out the before here.

And as an added plus, the patio smells like cedar.

Erecting the Fence

Erica was in Phoenix Thursday and Friday enjoying 90 degree weather. Back in Denver it was COLD. We even got a little snow Friday morning.

It was a chilly start today, but it warmed up enough to start mixing concrete and getting the posts in.

Post Holes Dug

Chris finished all of the digging tonight.