The Great Window Project of 2015

Two of the new windows.
The other two reflected in the lower right quadrant will go in the dining room.

Our house will be one hundred years old in 2019, and many of our windows are original. Several times a year I answer a knock and get a new window pitch from a vendor selling window replacements in our older neighborhood.

Until now, we've hesitated: it's a big project after all, and if energy efficiency were not an issue, I would tend to retain rather than replace. However, most are hard to open and some of them have storm windows that make cleaning next to impossible.

Bob is taking a break and admiring his work

A month or so ago we cleaned the aluminum porch windows, which are themselves over fifty years old, and obviously well past their prime. We decided that this year, we would replace four first-story windows and all the porch windows. The four new windows arrived last week and Scott H. began the work earlier this week.

Today Bob started on prepping some of the frames for painting, since the entire porch will need a fresh coat of paint. The old paint is thick and cracked, and Bob decided that he would use a blowtorch to remove the paint. Of course, this is universally considered to be a bad, dangerous idea but common sense didn't prevail in this instance. Perhaps lead paint fumes affect the mind.



The old wood looks pretty good

The fire extinguisher is within reach

Armed with a blowtorch, sander, scraper and fire extinguisher, he began the work a couple of hours ago. I decided to stay inside, in case I need to call 911 for some reason, but he's almost finished now and it looks like he's done fine. The job actually looks quite good, though the scope of the project has been curtailed since the work began. Scott told him jokingly that it would take a year to burn all the paint off ... and that estimate seems fairly accurate. Looks like sanding the wood and painting over it may be "good enough" for all but the boards done today.

We're happy with the look of the new windows. They are very similar to the original ones, and easy to open and close. At about $200 per window, replacing all the old windows seems like a viable plan to execute over the next year.

The smell of burned paint should dissipate soon.

Happy 32nd Anniversary!

Cath and Bob. Newlyweds on June 25, 1983.

On June 25, 1983, Bob Hennessey and I were married on a picture perfect early summer day, thankfully cooler after a very hot and humid week. Although It seems like a very long time ago in both time and space, the decades have passed happily, with the usual challenges.

At 32 I was an "older" bride, beginning to establish my place in the Canadian banking industry. I occasionally sensed an undercurrent of disapproval among those closest to me, particularly since I was leaving Canada for Minnesota, a state I knew mainly from watching the TV coverage of Hubert Humphrey's funeral in 1978. I had no idea that starting over in the US would be so daunting, and I'd misjudged the degree of homesickness I would feel. I sometimes wondered if love was enough.

Mary Hennessey, Sonia Munoz with Angie, Cath & Bob, best man John Hennessey

Marilyn Marshall, Cath, Bob, my mother, Mary Ryan

After the first lonely year, things gradually got better. Minnesota ways were now familiar and I finally got my first half decent job at Midwest Federal Savings and Loan Association. Three years into our marriage I became a mother and took the oath of American citizenship. A little later, I began a 23-year career as an employee of the State of Minnesota and settled into a life that soon included kids' sports and school activities. The Hennesseys -- and there are lots of them -- became my family.

Over the years, Bob and I spent hours in hockey arenas and in baseball field bleachers. We also camped, boated, skied, skated, and traveled all over the country and a little in Europe. About a decade ago, we were suddenly empty nesters and marveled that the children who once played on the sidewalk and in the yard were all grown up, some with families of their own.

I had to look up gifts for a 32nd anniversary. Seems as though some kind of "conveyance" (vehicle, bicycle, skateboard ...) will do the trick, but we already have enough toys that qualify as conveyances, so we'll have to pass on this one and enjoy a good dinner at Pazzaluna instead, using  a Christmas gift card from son Chris.

I've been married to Bob for nearly half my life and I'm glad I took that leap of faith all those years ago. Life has been kind to us; we've laughed a lot and had a hell of a good time. Turns out love was all we needed after all.

Prairie Garden Setback

It was a big year for helicopters

A day or so after our spring planting, including the new shade plants and more ambitious flowers for the prairie garden, a huge wind storm blew across the land and thousands of helicopters (really called samaras, as I learned from this Wikipedia article) dropped into the yard. There were so many that we had to scoop them up when we cut the grass but I had no idea how to get them out of the gardens.



At first, I was happy with all the green

Bob thought we should at least try, but I was afraid of disturbing the little plants that were no doubt preparing to erupt from the ground. Some of the helicopters blew away, but the rest seemed to settle into the earth so all I could do was hope for the best when we left for California.



Then I looked a little more closely ...

After our return, I was pleased to see lots of green in the gardens until I had a closer look yesterday after an all day rain. Much of the foliage looked suspiciously like maple leaves, and I first thought I must be mistaken -- but I'm a Canadian after all and I know a maple when I see one. Sure enough, hundreds of tiny maple trees were sprouting up, crowding the other seedlings.

I think I got a little too confident about my gardening skills after last year's beginner's luck. I've got a lot of weeding to do this weekend.