Installing Windows and Doors on My DREAM HOME

     Thank you for visiting my blog #2 and following my shed to cottage journey!! Let me just start by saying you can’t have a big for-lifetime project without making your personalized budget. I chose my budget limit in the beginning, and the budget guided when I had some surprises come up. Whether your project is a barn, tiny home, barn dominium, etc., work out your budget, and make your list of necessities and priorities. 

     As for how I made my budget, I chose Excel, as it’s a software that works inside my brain, and I can organize my thoughts into an Excel spread sheet. I created a delightful Excel budget sheet for my shed-to-house project; I have been able to make choices, changes, upgrades, downgrades, and decisions based on my budget.

     When my shed was delivered, I ordered it with only one door and designed it on the wrong wall, and no windows; and I had no dimensions of the walls and gambrel ceilings. My first project so far has been my most difficult project – even placing the orders was hard! I originally wanted black modern French doors which is stylish right now. I ordered them pretty soon after I ordered the shed. Lowes est. delivery was going to be 6 weeks, which would have correlated with the shed delivery date. When I ordered the French doors, I assumed the walls were a normal 8’, and as I mentioned earlier I had no dimensions, no blueprints or specs, and the brochure they hand you at the fair is only a generic bulletin for several shed types. I did not have any written material about the structural design. I called the manufacturer with no luck of getting assistance.       

     Fast forward to the arrival of my shed…the walls were not 8’, but only 76” high before the gambrel style ceiling begins its ascent. Standard size doors are 80” tall, which meant that I had to cancel the entire order, not knowing where to turn to get special size French doors, so again, it was up to me to do my due-diligence. I requested estimates from three local windows & doors reps and booked appointments.  As you can guess, custom doors are much pricier than standard, and my budget did not afford. Thank goodness for my pre-planned budget!

    After much research I found a door option which became my rescue – a local mobile home supplier. They had the exact size doors I needed. They are white vinyl sliding glass storm rated doors, not the style or color I wanted, but the budget worked, and they are actually very attractive. When I called, they had 2 available, so we bought the 2, and ordered 1 more. How to get them delivered did not occur to me, until it became a short term crisis. Thankfully Bro Eddie came up with a genius plan, and he and my father picked them up for me and delivered them to the property.

The window order also had to be canceled, because I had ordered them in black to match the original black French door order.  But now that I had white doors, I had to order white windows with a new lead time of 8 weeks out. The only good part about this delay was that we weren’t able to do much of anything in the hottest part of the summer. That shed got up to 115 degrees inside during the day; it was brutal working in there!!!

     So finally the day came when the windows were delivered : ) I was eager to have them installed. During the 8 weeks of waiting, I had contacted several leads about installation, but nothing was working out for me. Most window and door companies only want to install their brand of windows. And for the average handyman this just isn’t really something he does. So from May when the shed was delivered to October not a lot really was accomplished. Then my wonderful father Dennis stepped in and saved the build. My dad, my cousin Daniel, my brother Nate, and I made up the teams over a couple of weeks installing 4 windows and the sliding glass doors.

     The sliding glass doors are very heavy and we were having a little trouble of it fitting in; they were catching on my roof line where the gambrel starts, and so we had to keep cutting pieces out!  Once they were installed, it brought the shed finally to start looking like a house : )  I think It all looks beautiful and I'm so thankful for these men to help me out!!  I created a little video of the install to show you all the craziness that went down.

But all in all, the installs went pretty smoothly, thanks to the helpfulness of a few good men. 

Watch the video to see the fun and craziness that went on!