Over this last weekend I installed a Pella. Pretty straight forward, remove old inserts from old aluminum frame, set new window and secure in place. 

This is our dining room looking out to our backyard. That block wall is our property line, that tree is a very messy China Berry I planted a few years back, I'll never do that again!

 

 

Lady was supervising me, she was making sure I was doing it correctly, and she was also doing double duty guard dog as always.

 

 

The window went in pretty straight, but nothing is perfect, so I had to shim the casing/trim to give it the trim the appearance that at least it's squared up to the surrounding walls and level with the window above.

 

 

I know it's a dark shot, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get a clear image with the natural light from the outside. But there is the casing/trim in place. It's just simple farmhouse style, I used pine from the home center, followed up with spackling the knots, and caulking the butt joints. This is the easiest type of casing to install, no crown, just straight boards. I'll paint is this coming weekend.

 

I don't like working with the prepainted MDF, I prefer hand nailing and it's hard getting nails through the MDF, and I don't like the MDF dust created while cutting. The pine was much cheaper too, but I had to put a bit more labor in for filling knots etc.

 

 

It was nice to see our home clearly from the outside now, and clearly from the inside to the outside. We haven't had a clear view since we moved in and pretty much kept the blinds barely open because our windows were so ugly with hard water deposits and a window tinting job before we moved in that went wrong.

 

We'll install blinds, no curtains.

 

 

My ShopSmith got some good use, had to rip the boards for proper sizing.

 

 

One of our two cats, Juniper, was also supervising the operation.

 

 

My official dust collection for my Smith. It actually worked, don't laugh!

 

 

I'll keep this topic up to date with the paint job! Thanks for reading!

Looking good so far! (Insert 'thumbs up' emoji here.)

Ah the job is not complete without several "supervisors".

 

Well it turned out pretty nice! 

 

 

 

That's an understatement, looks really good...well done!

Upgrading the home for when you move?

Edited September 21, 2025Sep 21 by Al B

Looks really nice John. Enjoy the view until she sells.

6 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Enjoy the view until she sells.

Thanks Gramps, we will. This'll be the second home we've sold since we've been married over the last 34 years, we sold our very first home a littel 750 sqft town-home that was our first home, then we bought this one back on 2001. I remember when we sold the town-home it looked it's best since we had it right before we sold it! And it's looking like this home will be at it's best right before we sell it too!

I really need to work on that, I hope our next home I focus on it looking it's best for us to enjoy at the beginning of ownership and onward.

8 hours ago, Al B said:

Upgrading the home for when you move?

Ya, just a few things Al, don't want to get too carried away, we've done a bit research what gets the best return and fast sale for the money, this should be the last window, the new owners can do the remaining three in the home. Over the last few years I've virtually replaced all the windows in the home with the same Pella's, one thing you can say about Pella, they don't change over models all that frequently so you can go back a couple years later and order the same series.

15 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

That's an understatement, looks really good...well done!

Thanks Fred, it's a good feeling to step back and see a job legitimately done well! If I must say so myself!

It amuses me how many buyers want you to essentially renovate your home to what they want, minus paying for it.  Or doing the work. 

Selling our home As-Is Gunny. The work I'm doing is it, no custom requests at escrow.

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Selling our home As-Is Gunny.

 

 Just wait, you'll hear the crazy come out.  I swap mechanic horror stories with one of my regular customers that sells houses.  A new level of insanity I had never imagined. 

5 hours ago, Gunny said:

A new level of insanity I had never imagined. 

Boy---ain't that the truth.

Friend of ours is selling, buyer up bid for the house.

House past city inspection & THEIR inspector!

NOW they want a new roof, liner for the pool, etc., etc.

Thankfully, seller stood their ground and told the buyer NO!

Coincidentally I watched a video of 20 things not to do as a seller. One of the top things was do not do improvements as part of the negotiating process, if you absolutely must, offer a credit or discount off the asking price of the mortgage, but never do improvements, no new carpets, no nothing. Unless of course it's mandated such as things like Hot Water Heater earthquake straps like are required in our area, but beyond the "Lawful" things a seller is responsible for, no improvements.

Sellers market here, you start foolishness you are probably losing the deal.  Another customer has a daughter tried it, 11 tries to get a house. He finally got involved to find out she was wanting champagne on a beer budget.🤣

Edited September 22, 2025Sep 22 by Gunny
Oops

15 minutes ago, Gunny said:

Buyers market here, you start foolishness you are probably losing the deal.  Another customer has a daughter tried it, 11 tries to get a house. He finally got involved to find out she was wanting champagne on a beer budget.🤣

We still got a sellers market here Gunny. California typically lags behind, as much as I'm ready to leave this forsaken state, I do appreciate the real-estate market projections for sellers at this point in time. Low supply, current home owners that got in on the 2 to 3 percent interest rates during COVID are not budging, they don't want to sell and buy another just to get into a 6 percent rate, why leave their comfy 2.5 rate? So we are stagnant with sellers, and buyers are trying to get in. A good place for me at this time, but I do feel for those young buyers, with an average home price of $868,000 onward north of a million, I don't know how young folks starting out do it. It's sickening. 

Now granted, our home is only half that average, we are inland and live where it's hot, not LA county or San Diego county, but still, our home exploded in value as well, we should do well when buying a home back east.

Yeah here it's 300K starting and again how does a young couple get into a house.

3 hours ago, Gunny said:

how does a young couple get into a house.

With the key or without? Daytime or nighttime? Security system/ lights or not?

 

Asking for a friend?😉