Our project list for this past weekend, a nice three day weekend, was to install three windows, a patio door, and our entry door. The whole process started at Lowe’s on Friday afternoon. We were actually going to head out of town a little early to get a head start on the weekend. First thing, head to Lowe’s and pick up/secure our patio door for travel. This is where the fun started for us.
Friday morning, the wind here in LV was really whipping, and only continued to grow stronger throughout the day. There was going to be a big temperature drop on Friday and so the wind reflected that change all over. We were no exception. Here we were, securing a 6’8″ patio door on top of our trailer, standing upright, for 3 hours of travel. It took us quite a while in the Lowe’s parking lot building a framing system inside of the trailer to secure the patio door.
This was the look before heading out.
Wind whipping, we headed out for the ranch, knowing we had to pass over the Hoover Dam bridge, where winds are always terrible. The bridge has a continuous posting that high profile vehicles use the inside lane. Most of the time it says “high profile vehicles’ not recommended…but this time it said ‘high profile vehicles’ prohibited. hahahahaha Winds were in the 30mph range and whipping good. I think we were high profile for sure. We decided to try and wait out the winds in Boulder City.
We had some pretty good Mexican food, surprising actually, and sat in Starbucks while we watched the clock tick. We decided to let it get dark, and normally the winds ease up a bit. We headed out about 8pm I think, finally tired of waiting. The idea was to follow a semi, and stay to the left of it on the bridge…well things didn’t work out that way, and we were full brunt into the wind. I told Sheralee, that was the most scared I had been driving the Jeep. Freaky. The wind just continued and finally eased a little towards Kingman. Insane night of driving. The wind picked up again after Kingman and it was tough the whole way. We finally arrive close to midnight, all in tact, but missing half a moving blanket. Somewhere out there in the desert is half a blue moving blanket. Worth the sacrifice I guess.
This is after I started unpacking. Actually, the sliding patio door came dislodged on our bouncy ranch road, but still made it fine. I really don’t want to do that again, uhhh…ever! ha.
We started Saturday morning to install the smaller 36″x12″ window, our first window ever. It was a learning experience, but it went alright. Then we tackled the patio door and finished that just before sundown. Looks and works great!!!!!
Sunday morning we tackled the two upstairs windows. We did them both from inside, although Sheralee had to get on the big ladder to help screw in a couple screws. I was able to do most of it from inside the loft reaching out the window.
We finished the day Sunday flashing the windows. It was a learning experience, and funny thing, it has got to be so much easier with scaffolding, or ground level windows. duh!
We did receive two big thunderstorms Sunday and Monday. The one Sunday was eye-opening as there were numerous leaks within the loft, I mean seeping in everywhere. It was crazy…and a little bit of a downer, to realize we had to step back a few steps. We ended up pulling out all of the insulation we had installed and working on fortifying the water proofing of the loft. On the inside we spray foamed every nook and cranny. Then, Sheralee went up on the roof and added two new layers of house wrap, overlapping the correct way. I believe we had two problems before, the overlapping was incorrect causing the water to go beneath the final low end house wrap, and that house wrap was Everbilt brand….and total crap!! We did it right and after our big rain on Monday, we are good to go….fingers crossed! We are now stepping up our roof panel installation.
Next weekend…a bit of a departure. If the loft is dry, and we are confident, we might install the flooring up there, but mostly it will be a weekend of tree cutting and wood gathering.