Come to my window

Actually it would be more convenient and less creeper-tastic if you'd come to the door, but that isn't functional yet. So the windows will have to do - because they're here! And they all got installed today!

For those interested in the minutia of our house (Roy), we went with the Low-E EC Argon windows from Jeld-Wen. These have a U-factor of 0.30 (and even a bit lower - 0.27 - for the fixed windows), which is the Energy Star recommendation for northern climates. These recommendations vary depending on where you live, and whether most of your energy will be used to heat your house in the winter, or cool it in the summer. Obviously in Michigan we fall solidly into the former category!

Here are a couple views from inside. The windows all still have protective films (and many stickers) on them, so the views leave a bit to be desired at this point, but here's the big master bedroom window:

And the view from the master bedroom out the upper dormer window, facing the river:

That bank of windows is one of my absolute favorite things about the house... check these beauties out!

Now just imagine that space with a big comfy couch, rather than scaffolding and ladders. This set of windows is gigantic - we were at the house earlier in the afternoon for a walk-through with the electrician, and it hadn't been installed yet. For scale, this is a full-size bathtub peaking out (looking tiny) from behind the living room windows:

You also may notice some lovely red siding in the foreground of this picture! The painters were hard at work today putting a first coat on the wood for the exterior siding (they'll put another coat on it once it's up on the house). It was quite a stack by the time they were getting close to done...

Not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous of their sweet paint-sprayer. I could have a lot of fun with that (and probably end up with barn red dogs).

In other news, today we said a final, not-so-fond farewell to the last section of the crazy spiral staircase of doom. Soon the giant scary hole will be no longer, and I won't have to gasp and wince and tremble every time someone walks near it...

...and hopefully soon we'll be able to get from the basement to the first floor without doing this!

We're told the foundation crew is coming out tomorrow to finish the foundation in the garage and the new entryway, so the carpenters will be able to finish the main entry stairway (as well as the door on the north side of the house). That'll be good, because right now that last step is a doozy...