What a Day, What a Day

The title says it all.

Basically, yesterday was the day from HELL - seriously, it was bad.

Seriously.

The day started off well. I got that crack between the east wall and that half wall prepped for caulking.

It didn't turn out so bad.

I don't like the color, but for some reason the store was completely sold out of the stuff in white.

I guess it's not that big of a deal; am planning on painting it.








There are still a couple spots that need to be touched up due to shrinkage but that's no big deal either. I also need to clean it up a bit along the edges.

I was kind of surprised when I saw this picture though; the digital camera brings out little flaws I don't really see when I look at it. Example, see those ripple type groves? They look smooth, and feel smooth, in real life.

Anyway, like I said, the day started off normally and then it happened.

I about burned down the house.

It's a rather strange and bizarre tell, but here it is.

I was doing some light cleaning in the kitchen and getting ready to fix myself an early lunch. Then I went upstairs and noticed the dog wasn't with me - forgot she was still outside. Down the stairs I go and out the door to find the dog. Got the dog and went back up the stairs to get some dishes that were up (I was going to do dishes while making lunch). While I was up there I fired up the PC and turned on the TV. I was watching some commercial when I all of a sudden smelled smoke!!

I walked out of the bedroom and bounded down the stairs. As soon as I got to the point where I could see the foyer I could see the smoke filling it. I ran into the kitchen and there, on top of the stove, was a smoldering pile of heavy duty oven mitts! Not wanting them to flare up and scorch the woodwork or even possibly damage the ceiling, I pulled them off the stove and onto the floor.

As soon as they hit the floor they flared up! Only a few inches but enough. I grabbed a wet wash cloth and threw it over the flames and then stamped it out. The house was filled with so much smoke I couldn't really see the other side of the kitchen.

I went to the back door and opened it (thinking to get the smoke out) when it dawned on me - the animals!!! The smoke was so bad I was afraid it would hurt them. I looked outside again and saw all the animals except for Brutus our tomcat. So I went back up stairs to find him (he likes sleeping on the bed during the day). When I got up stairs the smoke was as bad there as down stairs!

By now I was having trouble breathing and my lungs hurt. I grabbed Brutus from the bed, pulled my sweatshirt over my mouth and headed back outside. As soon as I hit the kitchen Brutus freaked, jumped out of my arms and ran for the basement. I knew he was heading for the pet door in the window there so I headed back outside. All the critters were there so I sat on the stoop to get some fresh air. After a bit I figured I'd better go ahead and open up the house and get the smoke out (thank the Lord it wasn't raining). As I stepped in the house I notice the smoke was worse, so I pulled my sweatshirt back up and went inside.

The oven mitts had flared back up!!! This time the flames were a foot or two high!! I grabbed the wet cloth again and dropped it on top of the flames; stamped on them and then picked them up and tossed them in the sink in the powder room (the kitchen sink had stuff in it). I then filled the sink and made sure the flames were out.

After this I spent the next hour getting windows and doors opened, setting up a fan, and getting the smoke out.

Luck was on our side; the burning oven mitts only burned on the top area and didn't harm the floor. There is some slight scorching on it but nothing bad - you can hardly see it.

I honestly have no idea how the burner was on. I had used the burner the night before but SWMBO said that when she cleaned the stove that night it was off. I will sometimes fix myself a cup of tea, or broth, at mid morning but I knew I hadn't. The burner knob was on the #2 setting so somehow it was turned on. The only thing I can figure is I must have bumped it somehow while I working in the area.

It was definitely a mess to clean-up and the smell is still in the house, but everything seems to be back to normal.

After cleaning up I called the wife to tell her what had happened. I didn't want her to just walk in and smell smoke. Anyway, we got to talking about the smoke. This is where the rest of the day took a turn for the worse.

From discussing the smoke we figured that it had to make it up to the second floor, other than through the stairwell, because there was no smoke in the area of the middle landing - just on the ground floor and second floor. We then remembered the vent in the kitchen that was inside the pantry cabinet. We had forgotten that it was there and have as yet to see where it leads.

Here's the vent. From what I can tell it vents into the chimney chase the master bedroom's heater vents into.

BINGO!

There was our answer. The smoke went through the vent, up into the chimney chase, and out through the heater on the second floor. This makes sense because the smoke was heavier in the master bedroom and then permeated into the rest of the rooms.

Just then I had a thought - if the smoke had made it's way to the second floor via the chimney chase did it fill the attic with smoke as well. So, up the attic stairs I go. No smoke, up the wind storm from the other day had knocked out a couple of the windows. The were not broken, but the one on the south side had the glass about knocked out. It would have to be cleaned up and re-glazed!!

SHEESH will the problem ever cease?!

While carrying the window pain down the main stairs a pain shot through my left hand! It was so bad I about let go of the window, but in order to keep a bad situation from getting worse I bucked up and carried on. By the time I got to the kitchen and placed the window on the saw horses my hand was throbbing. When I moved my hand away from the window to have a look, guess what popped out of the frame.

Yup, a wasp!! Not just one, but two!

This is the one that nail me.

The other one got whacked with a fly swatter (Tony Soprano has nothing on me).

The stinger was right smack in the middle of the bad of skin at the base of the two fingers you use to make the peace sign 'V'.

So up the stair I went again to get some tweezers to get it out.

Once that ordeal was over I went back down the stairs (you'd think I would loose some weight with as many times I go up and down the stairs each day) to start work on re-glazing the window.

Here it is.

It isn't in the best shape. The attic windows are the only ones we are thinking about replacing with new ones because of how bad they are.

In this case all I really cared about was cleaning it up enough to re-glaze it. We will either repair them properly when the attic finally gets finished out or we will replace them.

Do you see how filthy the glass is? You can barely see the sawhorse on the left and can't the one on the right.

Here's the window sans glass.











Here's a close up.

I'm showing it due to something I haven't ran across in the house yet.

You can see the grove the window sets in on the right. However, at the top all you see is a slot. I have not run across this before. All the windows I've worked with in the past have had a grove on all four sides.

Now, I could kind of understand the slot being there to help hold the glass in if it was in the bottom sash, but this is in the top sash! Have any of you ever ran across this?

Okay, the glass is out and the wood groves are lean. Now for the glazing.

Guess what?! I went and got my window glaze and it was dried out - hard as a rock!!

AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

And now that the lumber yard in town has closed I have no place to just go get some.

So, I get on the PC, find a link to what I want and ask the wife to pick it up on her way home.

By the time SWMBO got home, and due to my massive headache and sore chest, I bagged the night and figured I would finish the window in the morning.

Fast forward to today.

First thing I did was make sure the stove/range is off!

These are the type of glazing points I use.

Okay, I always use DAP 33 Window Glazing putty, but this time I thought I would try their other choice. It is the same thing, but comes in a tube like caulking.

Before I go any further, go here to see how I normally glaze a window.

Here's the tube of stuff I used.

Notice, the glass is in and glazed. Do you see how nice and clean and sharp that strip of putty is? That straight out of the tube!! I didn't have to do a thing with it.

There is a down size to using this putty out of the tube though - the corners were hard to get right. Also, the edge of the putty does not match up with the edge of the wood. I do not think it is the fault of the putty tube nozzle either. The window sash is as thick as a typical one, but the glass is not in the centered in the sash. Instead of having 1/2" of sash on either side of the glass, ones side is 1/4" and the other 3/4". So, to get the putty even with the sash edge on this window it would have to be done by hand. If the window glass would have been centered, like normal, the putty edge would have been spot-on. All-n-all I would highly recommend this stuff!

One last thing. Did you notice the duct tape on the top of the tube? It was suggested to use this stuff to keep things like this, and caulk, from drying out. Well see if it works.

In closing, the window is in place and I have made sure it will not come out till next Spring when I work on it next.

NOTE: Typically you would lay a bead of putty into the groves that hold the window BEFORE you place the window in place. I left this step out because the attic windows will be redone this coming spring and I only needed it to stay put for the winter.

For an excellent, step-by-step guide that can be printed, go here.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry