Two Home Improvement Projects Down

And One More To Go!

This summer we have been getting some home improvement projects done that have been put off for some time. The first project was blocking a window and installing an AC. My son had been wanting to block off his east window because the sun shining on it would make his room so hot. Well he finally got the AC unit and the materials to block the window at the end of June. David , our son Nick, and our son-in-law Justin spent about a week working on it here and there when the weather allowed. Didn’t want the window out and nothing in its place on that rainy day. They got the job done and it looks awesome. Now my son sits in his room all nice and cool, while David and I hope we can get the humidity down with the dehumidifier so we can run the swamp cooler to cool the rest of the mobile home.

The window has been removed and the plywood has been put in.

The plywood was painted with rubber roof sealer and then with latex white paint.

The inside of the plywood.

Nick and Justin placing the thin panel like board called “Ultra Ply” used instead of dry wall and mud over the foam and outside plywood. The Ultra Ply was then covered with a white piece of paneling and the whole wall was painted with white latex.

The finished project from the outside.

The finished project from the inside.

The swamp cooler was the next project that was tackled. During the winter the snow would sit on the cooler and when it melted it would run into the house and eventually was rotting out the wood siding they installed around it when the swamp cooler was installed way before we ever bought the house. So David remove that and cleaned off the pound of caulk they had used to try to “seal” the wood siding. Whoever installed the swamp cooler did a bang up job.<That is some sarcasm for you 🙂  David used materials left over from Nick’s AC project. I helped a little bit by trying to remove some of that caulk after David sliced his finger on the aluminum window frame the swamp cooler sits in. I also did the painting after it was all installed.

The swamp cooler with the new plywood surround. It was also properly caulked. Then foam was put in around it and the “Ultra Ply” was used and a piece of white paneling over that which was painted.

Outside of Swamp cooler finished project.

Closer view of finished swamp cooler outside.

The Finished swamp cooler inside.

The next project is still in progress. We have been needing to replace the front storm door. This was also improperly installed long before we ever bought the house. David has done nothing but complain about how terribly it was done.  He says this is the worst cobbled and McGuyvered thing he has seen. He has been using lots of colorful metaphors This project is still in progress as the weather turned really hot it has been in the high nineties.  We have a deck outside this door but it’s not enclosed or even covered so it gets pretty hot out there. So this is what Dave has done so far.

This is what it look like after Dave removed the old storm door.

This is the old storm door.

The new storm door standing in the living room for now.

Dave has removed one of the poorly installed boards used as the frame for the storm door. And here is where the colorful metaphors started pouring out of his mouth.

After Dave has removed all the storm door frame. You can see all the gaps and in the gaps was some kind of sealant/caulk that had no business being used in this manner.

The threshold he has to do some fixing on this too.

Dave has installed a new board for the top of the frame. He has also filled all the gaps with spray in foam sealant.

A wider angle of the replaced board.

This is a close up of the foam filled gap and where Dave had to bang the siding down and nail it in place properly.