The windows arrive as scheduled - at the second attempt!
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The windows are one of the trickier parts of the house to get to an island. The objective is not to break any! After carefully watching the weather forecast the first shipment was scheduled to arrive at noon on September 12. But it did not! It arrived at 3:00 p.m. and the shipment was returned. (It was too late then to get a reasonable number of windows to the Island during daylight hours.) The shipment was rescheduled for the following day.
The windows arrive as scheduled - at the second attempt!
(Click on the image to see a larger version of this picture, and
then use your browser's back button to return to this page.)
The windows came securely fastened in the truck.
Here Lockwood and Stephen carry a window down the ramp from the
truck.
Windows were stacked safely in piles before being loaded onto
Stephen's boat.
Usually a minimum of 7 windows could be fitted into Stephen's boat.
Five doors were also shipped. These were too large for Stephen's boat and were transported in a smaller, but more open boat. The doors weigh up to 240 lbs( 110 kg), and this made the boat a little unstable. However, all the doors arrived at the Island in good shape. They were left where they were unloaded on the Island, and when possible were carried to the building site, one at a time, by four people.
Stephen and Lockwood (Chris observing) check that the window
diagonals are equal before nailing the first window into place.
Chris and Lockwood nail in the first window.
The second shipment of windows was completed on September 19. There were 27 windows and 4 doors in the first shipment, and 37 windows and one door in the second shipment. Five other windows from a different supplier were brought over at an earlier date.
Chris fitting one of the smaller windows.
By September 25 many windows had been installed on the east side of the building. Some of these are accessible from the balconies. The doors for the bedroom balcony and the observation deck were hoisted to the observation deck using the swing stage. They were not installed as there was still much traffic on and off the balcony while work was progressing on the roof. However, installation time is very soon! Also, one window could not be installed as the front pane of glass broke in transit. The broken glass also punctured the aluminum window casing. For the living room a scaffold was built as the 18' (5.5 m) swing stage cannot be fitted into tight areas.
Six of the living room windows installed.
The same windows as in the picture above except from outside the
building.
It rained near the end of September. (It sometimes does this in the Vancouver area too!) Unfortunately the windows did not seem to be waterproof. A quick call to the manufacturer who asked whether "the windows were taped" answered the question. The windows are held in by an aluminum flange which is bent down after the windows are unpacked. This bend is along a preformed line and small cracks are introduced into the flange. These leak! Tape must be added to prevent this. (Eventually the windows will be caulked at these points but not until the window trim and the siding is added.) It took a day to tape all the windows on the east side of the house. Other already installed windows will be taped shortly, and new windows taped when they are installed.
Tape has been placed all around the window frame.
On October 8 the final two doors were put in place. One was carried up through the house, the other was taken up using the staging. These doors are very heavy and required all the muscle power available.
One of the final two doors is placed on the staging.
The door ascends!
Unfortunately, the door required a slightly larger opening than that
available. (3/8 inch (1 cm) was cut from the door header.)
Finally the door is in place and Chris adds the first nail.
On October 22 the entry door was put in place, as well as the five windows surrounding it. This means that when a door handle and lock are added, the house can be locked up. There are 10 windows still to go in. 8 on the west wall, 1 on the north wall, and 1 on the east wall. The latter two will be repaired by the manufacturer before being installed. All the installed windows on the east, south, and west have now been taped to keep out the rain.
The main entrance way - with a door!
On November 1 the door lock was installed in the main door and LOCKUP was achieved. (Lockup is when the house is secured and access is limited to those with a key. Obviously this requires a considerable degree of house completion!) Congratulations go to Stephen and Marja. Special thanks are also due to all those who took part in making this happen. Then on November 5 the final eight windows were installed. (Actually there are two more windows to go in but both these require work by the manufacturer before they can be installed. Both were damaged during shipment to Passage Island.) It seems that it is almost impossible to completely seal the windows at this point in the building sequence. The complete seal requires the wood surrounding the window to be in place.
The final eight windows in the centre of the house are installed.
Stephen completing the nailing of the last of the centre eight windows on the west wall.
The problem of leaky windows was not resolved by the addition of either the tape or the caulking. A meeting was held with the supplier who recommended ice and water shield - the same material as used on the roof. Stephen managed to get the east windows on the third floor done, but the material does not stick at +5�C. It does not stick at +7�C either! Perhaps above 15�C? Anyway, the solution seemed to be to use the hairdryer! By the end of the extended weekend of December 4, the windows on the east side which could be reached were done. Let's hope that solves the problem.
The third floor windows with the ice and water shield installed.
A detail of the ice and water shield at the top of one window.
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