Sleeping Porch Project
I really suck at taking "before" pictures of my various projects....maybe if I
did a better job, it might occur to me just how much work I've done on this
house over the last 4 years.
In any case, here's the only pic I could find of what the old windows on our
2nd floor sleeping porch looked like:
The paint was peeling badly off of them, the windows themselves were falling
apart, and there were only three ratty aluminum triple track windows (one you
can just see in the top right corner) that opened. Back in 2001, my
father-in-law and I attempted to repair the windows, but found them beyond
repair. So, I decided to build new ones, and put up some plastic sheeting over
the windows temporarily to keep the bugs out (the gaps in the windows were THAT
big).
It took me 3 years of working on them on-and-off to finish them. Don't
ask.
In any case, here's what the porch looks like now with the new windows
and a fresh coat of paint on the inside:
The windows and frames are all made of of cypress and are traditional
single-pane inward swinging casements. All 20 windows open, but only the ones
on the ends of the porch have screens. Screens for the other 12 will happen
sooner or later. My son has already moved his Krusty Krab tent out there,
although I admit that he doesn't play out there much....yet (the porch is off
of his bedroom). Still, an uninhabitable area of our house has been returned to
its somewhat former glory.
2011 update: Our son has slept out on the porch during the summer for the
past 3-4 years now. He loves it! The windows are holding up fine...all that
work was well worth it.