header's up.

It was a very exciting day around here yesterday indeed. I cut out a large part of the south wall's supporting structure and put in a giant header for some new windows.

The first step was to take out the existing window. I forgot, until I was about halfway through it, that you should always close the window before you remove it. And probably lock it. Otherwise, you have an issue of the stupid thing sliding open while it's being taken out and being very heavy on one side and not on the other. It came out pretty smoothly, despite my best attempts otherwise, and it is now relaxing, getting ready for the big move to the pile of other old windows.

The next step was to put in some braces to hold things steady up top. I don't actually think that these two temporary posts were actually holding too much up, but they made me feel better.

Next, cut the studs! 4 in all. 1 if them is too close to the camera to see. It was a little nerve-wracking, but there didn't seem to be any pressure on the saw blade as I was going through, so it didn't seem like too too much load was being exerted on them.

Then I had to make a little jig to hold up one end of the header as I jammed the other end into the wall. Pure, unadulterated muscle time.

There it is! Bracing is out and it seems to be holding up the roof and everything. Today I'll need to cut out the actual dimensions of the new window, build a new sill, get some new sheathing on the outside, and do the tar paper.

There was one last thing- I couldn't leave the big hole in the wall while I went out shopping, so I needed to cover it up. Of course, I didn't have enough plywood to do it, so I used what was at hand, which happens to be an old door. There won't actually be a sideways door here in the future, but I think that I'll be able to get some serious mileage out of it with the client.

Egress window code and whatnot.