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Oct. 3rd, 2009 10:28 amSo, I'm engaged in work avoidance (I have little men to finish painting before a game tomorrow, and since I *need* to do that, it becomes work), and I decided it was finally time to take down the A/C units for the winter. I successfully avoided even installing the giant ancient one in the bedroom, and the others I only used a few times, this keeping the power bill low and some vague feeling of environmental worthiness happy.
And it's nice to have the windows back, because it allows more light in. Whoever designed this house was a bit odd with windows. There is good windowage in the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen is good and the bathroom has a pleasing window in the shower (a feature I love). I guess what I should say is that they were a bit at a loss with the dining room. It has one normallish window (that the A/C unit goes in), a small window further along the wall (why not a full-sized window?) that doesn't let that much light in, and a door to the back steps. Except that the door has a short (~3') wall projecting out next to it into the room, making a sort of alcove which makes opening the door rather difficult (one can only open it <90*) and prevents much light from getting into the room through the door.
Well, today I found another annoying peculiarity. There are sliding frames in most of the windows, in addition to the sash windows themselves, that allow for the use of screens and storm windows. The storm windows can be slid up into the upper portion of the window and the screen slid down to allow air (but not bugs) in, and then the screen slid up later and one of the storm windows slid down to allow for extra insulation when the window is closed. And they all stay in one position or another via little spring-loaded chocks in the bottoms of the frames.
I was having the devil's own time getting the slides in the larger dining room window to stay up after I took the A/C unit out. I've always had trouble with them, so I took a closer look, and I saw that the cuts in the frame that the chocks hold into were far too high up; the sliding frames couldn't reach them. So I took them all out to see if they had been placed in in the wrong order. At which point I found they couldn't be, because they are all different widths; the inner ones won't fit in the outer positions.
And it was while examining that interesting bit of design that I noticed what the real problem was. The chocks are shaped like wee trapezoids, with a point projecting out of the bottom edge. The cuts in the frame were identical, except with the point at the top edge. Then it suddenly made sense why the cuts were so high up and there were none at the bottom of the window.
Whoever installed the frame put it in WRONG WAY UP! Bloody idiot!
Well, at least I have my windows back, and a little better fresh air flow.... Now, to shift this bloody heavy A/C unit into the back bedroom closet. The landlord kindly provides storage for them...in the BASEMENT. No, I am not carrying this bloody thing down two flights of very narrow stairs... I'll give up~20 sq ft of storage to avoid that.
And it's nice to have the windows back, because it allows more light in. Whoever designed this house was a bit odd with windows. There is good windowage in the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen is good and the bathroom has a pleasing window in the shower (a feature I love). I guess what I should say is that they were a bit at a loss with the dining room. It has one normallish window (that the A/C unit goes in), a small window further along the wall (why not a full-sized window?) that doesn't let that much light in, and a door to the back steps. Except that the door has a short (~3') wall projecting out next to it into the room, making a sort of alcove which makes opening the door rather difficult (one can only open it <90*) and prevents much light from getting into the room through the door.
Well, today I found another annoying peculiarity. There are sliding frames in most of the windows, in addition to the sash windows themselves, that allow for the use of screens and storm windows. The storm windows can be slid up into the upper portion of the window and the screen slid down to allow air (but not bugs) in, and then the screen slid up later and one of the storm windows slid down to allow for extra insulation when the window is closed. And they all stay in one position or another via little spring-loaded chocks in the bottoms of the frames.
I was having the devil's own time getting the slides in the larger dining room window to stay up after I took the A/C unit out. I've always had trouble with them, so I took a closer look, and I saw that the cuts in the frame that the chocks hold into were far too high up; the sliding frames couldn't reach them. So I took them all out to see if they had been placed in in the wrong order. At which point I found they couldn't be, because they are all different widths; the inner ones won't fit in the outer positions.
And it was while examining that interesting bit of design that I noticed what the real problem was. The chocks are shaped like wee trapezoids, with a point projecting out of the bottom edge. The cuts in the frame were identical, except with the point at the top edge. Then it suddenly made sense why the cuts were so high up and there were none at the bottom of the window.
Whoever installed the frame put it in WRONG WAY UP! Bloody idiot!
Well, at least I have my windows back, and a little better fresh air flow.... Now, to shift this bloody heavy A/C unit into the back bedroom closet. The landlord kindly provides storage for them...in the BASEMENT. No, I am not carrying this bloody thing down two flights of very narrow stairs... I'll give up~20 sq ft of storage to avoid that.
