I had another one of my disturbed nights – not so much disturbed as I just woke up early, having had only between 5 and 6 hours sleep. Anyway, I couldn’t get back to sleep, mainly because I’d been bitten like crazy by a mosquito during the night – on my face, finger and wrist – so I thought that I might as well get up, have breakfast and get straight onto installing the second replacement bedroom window.
We’ve got a marvellous spell of weather in prospect for the rest of this week and as I already have one meeting lined up with a building contractor tomorrow morning, I must make the best use of it to finish off the work I have to do on the house to give myself time for packing and getting ready to leave, caravan work and meeting, hopefully, with the other contractors that I contacted last week
After I’d had breakfast, I blasted on to clear the second (my) bedroom, create space to work in and cover up what I couldn’t take out to protect it from dust. Then I attacked the window and frame in the same way that Wim and I did the other last week and soon had it out on the ground outside. I was disappointed to find that when the frame was removed, the wall on one side was sunk so far below the plaster surface that there was nothing to drill and plug to take the screws to hold the window frame in.
So I had to make it good with sand-cement mortar – I did a bit on the other side too actually – and I thought that this would mean that I’d have to then leave the job until tomorrow when it would have cured. However, for once the hot sun worked in my favour and after I’d had a quick lunch, I found that the mortar was already hard enough to be screwed and plugged. So I was able to get the new frame in today after all, and in fact the job was generally better and the fixings also better than I’d got with the other window.
By the end of the afternoon, about 5.30 pm, I got this second window, to the same stage as the first ie ready for sealing and finishing, which I hope to be able to do tomorrow. Here they both are.
The next three shots show the window closed and open in swivel and tilt modes.
Here’s a shot of both windows taken fom the outside.
I think it’s a great improvement and it is, in purely practical terms. The bottoms of the old window frames were totally rotten and when I broke them out I found that they contained a lot of insects that like that sort of thing and that were finding their way indoors. One of the panes in my bedroom’s window was also a cracked and it’ll be nice to see the back of that. Just to finish off, here’s an old shot of the house with the original old windows, from 2016 I believe when they were actually in better condition than now.
What do you think? Was it worth it? I think so… 😉
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Hello and thank you for your kind comment. I’m going to finish both of them off today so after today I should be able to concentrate totally on getting ready to move out of my house.
Water itself won’t be a problem because there’s already a water supply on my land on which I’ll be building my new house. The main problem will be getting Veolia to connect it up with a water meter and a tap so I can connect it with a hosepipe to the caravan in time for me to move in. If not, I’ll just have to use a water carrier for a few days which I’ll be able to fill up every day or so at my friends’ house. However, that’ll only be cold water and I was only thinking just before I read your comment that the water heater that I’ve ordered and should arrive any day now will probably need a higher current than the electricity supply, which also has to be connected up, will be able to provide and will keep tripping it out. In that case I’ll have to think of something else – a lower power one for example – but that might not be able to run a shower.
The WC won’t be a problem as my caravan now has a chemical toilet that I’ll have to empty out every few days, maybe once a week, at either Rouffignac or Plazac where there are easily accessible public toilets. If I’d had a mobile home rather than a caravan I’d have had to connect it up to a ‘fosse septique’ (septic tank) system ie the one that will eventually be used by the house, and that would have delayed things considerably. I don’t think that you have to with a caravan but I’ll find out soon as I’ve already filed my request to site the caravan on the land.
It’s all getting quite exciting now 🙂
Look good.
I wonder how you will manage for water in the caravan?
– and wc effluent, come to think of it!
Best of luck.