New Windows Part III

At the end of last week it was the turn of the living room. We’re replacing the French windows with sliding doors. This makes sense for a lot of reasons: the garden is on the west side so it gets windy and we don’t want the windows banging in the wind; the new windows are triple glazed and very heavy (each one weighs around 100 kg), which puts enormous stress on the hinges and the frame.

Nothing succeeds as planned!

Also, the new doors are lower, just 1 cm above the floor which will make going in and out a lot safer. Or it will when we get round to raising the patio: it’s currently about 25 cm lower!

But…

As with the kitchen and dining room, once the old windows and shutters were removed, we discovered that the lintel is lower and wider than expected. So, again, the frame will have to sit deeper in the room and the floor will have to be cut into.

If we’d been able to put the windows in in November as originally hoped, we’d have found out earlier. Better still, if we’d removed the shutters, we’d have had a chance to tidy up the lintel.

But, we didn’t and we couldn’t.

This is the result: the parquet had to be cut into and an angle grinder was the only tool to hand.

I had the unenviable task of telling Mr Schwalfenberg what we’d done to his floor! He’s going to make a little profile that should cover this shameful scar.

We’ll also have to be very careful with the plastering because next to the windows the radiators are due to be hung. This should be okay if the plastering is done at right angles to the wall. Fortunately, Ivan was on hand to cut a bit of cinder block and do some emergency plastering so that the insulation could be sprayed and taped.

And it was, if course, only once the workmen had gone that I noticed that the connection for the shutter motor is on the wrong side. Easy enough to extend the cable but annoying all the same!

On Wednesday Mr Schwalfenberg came to measure up and rub salt into the wound. Actually, he was very helpful even though it was obvious he wasn’t impressed.

And yesterday evening Mr Loock rang to say someone was coming round this morning to check everything. He’d been ill all week with the flu.

And he was as good as his word. One of the guys who’d fitted the windows came round and took time to look at everything and answer questions, the most important being whether the window frame was completely sealed, as we’re due a storm this weekend.

There is still some work to be done on the windows and they will do this when they come to fit the ones in my study in a couple of weeks.

Phew!