The wall of windows is complete.

I fixed-ish the leaning problem by adding some steel to the inside frame.

In our last episode, I installed a sliding door, where a window had been. Today’s project is doing it again with a second door to replace a swinging door. When I’m done, I will have installed 4 of these.

Learning from last time, I made the opening very tight to 1/4″ around the new door dimentions. Too tight. I had to pull it out and trim the opening several times to finally fit it.

Problem area. Was that wall leaning like that before I started? Hmmm. The entire back of the house seems to be leaning. A half bubble off true.

That doesn’t look like much, but that works out to a one and a half inch gap at the top of the wall for studs that are touching at the bottom. I’ll have to monitor the build to see if it gets worse. That would indicate I removed too much plywood sheeting to make windows. Exterior plywood is a strucstual component and keeps the house from “twisting”.

In the last arts and crafts, i required a table saw to rip (cut in the same direction as the grain) multiple 2x3s to slim them down. Fortunately for me I already have one.

Several years ago, I inherited one from my father-in-law. An old craftsman model 113 with cast iron surface.

HEAVY AS HELL.

As I start cutting, the blade binds up and comes to a stop. That is unusual. Normally, the blade spins and cuts wood. It will really set back my scedule if I have to cut all that wood with a circular saw.

After a diagnosis, I discovered that the woodruff key (a half moon shaped chunk of steel) had falled out and the arbor pully was spinning freely on the shaft.

Not good

A new half moon key at lowes is about $8, if you know what size to get. Or for about $6, you can get a box of assorted sizes at China Freight. I happen to have such a box and was back in business in minutes.

And back out of business a few minutes later, fishing my key out of the sawdust pile under the saw.

The locking screw had wiggled loose. Fixed with blue lock-tite, which I also happen to have, and im back in business a second time.

With a good table saw to rip the wood to the right thickness, I made short work of this job. Overall about 6 hours of work for a 15×13 floor.

This old shack has a lot of problems and challenges as well as hidden defects. One was that the entire back third of the house has a floor that is about 2.5″ lower than the front of the house.

That’s because the front of the house is the original house and the back was some sort of porch that later got covered in. This is evident, as i mentioned before, by a plywood wall, complete with tar paper, under the drywall between the two section and the two being connected only by a single 30″ door frame (without door).

So. We come to the point in the story where I raise that floor. This has several benefits. First, it eliminates the trip hazard between the front and rear sections of the house. Second, it creates a secondary barrier on the floor to block drafts and cold seeping from the carport below.

The back doors and deck height were planned ahead with this new floor height in mind.

To accomplish this, I bought a bunch of 2×3 pine boards and ripped them on my table saw to bring the new floor height up to the same height as the front of the house. A layer of new OSB on top of that and we have a tight floor. Fastened with nails and glue on both sides of the trimmed 2×3 so there won’t be any future squeaks.

The projects here never end. Today i am removing a window and installing a door.

I waited to do this until my deck was done so I’d have a surface to work from.

The doors are heavier than lead bars, wrapped in lead packaging. Just to move them around, I had to disassemble them. This was pretty straight forward and involved just removing the sliding panel.

These windows suck. Lots of water and insect damage.

To get the heavy doors up onlt the deck, I rigged a rope-pully-wench system and hauled it up.

And VIOLA!!

Two more similar doors will go on that same wall, opening it up like a “wall of windows”.