Rebuilding the Window Wall

With the restructuring complete, we proceeded to fill in the support framing to allow the new windows and doors to be set.

The framing was done to duplicate the same impression given by the original wall. The main changes were to use insulated glass. Triple pane was used in all the other places than the solar window wall. In this location, the extra layer of glass provides too much external reflection making the losses in heat gain greater than the gains in insulation.

This shot shows a clear front with the new down supports waiting for the final framing.

It is quite clear that the August start was not quite early enough to avoid some cool weather before the glass was in.

This shot shows the 8/4 pine which was specified for construction of the frames which would hold the glass. It was fun watching the carpenters frequently working in summer weight shirts and shorts. Even without glass the sun produces wonderful warming on sunny days.

As you can tell the entire main floor has become a woodshop. The plan included preparing all the window frames now that the base wall has been partitioned to hold the frames.

Instead of utilizing dowels, wafers were used with the help of a special wafer slot cutting tool. This was to make a better joint then dowels.

This was the first frame. We needed a total of seven full size frames about 6'x7', another set of seven about 6'x5', and the two sets upper and lower at about a 3' width.

It was really nice to start seeing out of real glass again. And since this was early December, this started making the evening heating less wasteful. Meanwhile I shook the sawdust off my balcony hosted bed each night.