We have window shades! They look so great. I’m glad we decided to buy them instead of cobbling something less functional together ourselves. The privacy and light blocking portion is on the bottom. Light filtering and air flow is at the top. Both sections are fully adjustable. Kinda perfect since our windows only slide open at the top.
Look at this guy, being all domestic! He is a wizard with a sewing machine, and whipped up some kitchen curtains out of the bed skirt that came with our comforter. He also cut down and sewed a cloth shower curtain to fit the tiny shower opening – a temporary solution until we build a door. What a guy. ❤️ So we are all ready for our road trip up to Mt. Hood for our last resort skiing of the season. In prep for this we’ve basically moved into our new home, and get to sleep in it tonight. So exciting!
We finally got the magnetic knife rack up! It’s the little things that bring the most joy. Also, I’m super thrilled about the continuous kitchen window sill ledge. I had to sell Brad on the idea, but it looks so good.
I had planned on making my own custom window shades and not spending money on a professional solution. But after reviewing what our needs are I’m changing my mind. Privacy and light-blocking is super important. Light filtering and air flow is also important. Ideally, we would have the blinds open top down so we can have privacy and air flow at the same time (our windows only open at the top). We stumbled onto this TriLight window display at Lowe’s, and it’s perfect. They open bottom up and top down, with an adjustable light filtering option at the top. Super versatile. So now I’m justifying the cost for five windows – I think it would be worth it to get everything that we need in one solution.
This is so exciting, something I’ve been waiting on doing for months. We put in window sills today! We wanted squared off windows to look more like a traditional home, but our shuttle bus windows were rounded. We built the frames in to cover the rounded edges, and then with the sills in place, voila! Squared off windows! I’ve started framing in the outside with mitered corners, but ran out of wood, so no pictures of that yet.
Shuttle busses typically have these signature rounded windows. They look nice for a shuttle bus, but we wanted something squared off to look more like a home than a bus. See our earlier post about how we did that.
So now we have window frames that are square, but are very visible from the outside. Not attractive! The solution seems chintzy, but worked out great. I cut inserts of foam board to fit along the sides of the frames and to fill the gaps where we plan to wall over the windows, and painted over with black paint. The result from the outside is perfect. You cannot see the wooden window frames or the foam board at all. It’s like looking into a black hole! Check it out, I’m super pleased:
Whoever cut this window did a terrible job! This is the window in the front of the bus by the entry door, and the only window we hadn’t dealt with yet. There are big gaps around the window, and water from the rain was pooling up at the base. Now I can see why!
I removed the window frame and installed some Sponge Window Seal tape around it (the same as what we used for the other windows) and pressure fit back into place. I don’t think we will have any problem with this window again, that stuff is so simple and amazing.
Today we tackled a big project that’s been lurking in the backs of our minds: building wooden window frames. We weren’t quite sure how we were going to do it. We knew we wanted squared off windows with sills to make it feel less like a bus and more like a real home…
So we came up with an idea to build out the frames first with 1 x 2 boards using wood glue and staples, pressure fit them into the window with foam, then staple the whole thing into place. I measured and cut boards, Brad assembled the frames, then we installed them into the windows together. They are surprisingly sturdy! Even though there were a few mishaps with measuring (*cough*), it was a fun and productive day building wooden window frames.
When the time comes, we’ll wall around the windows with tongue-and-groove paneling, and install sills. Check out the results from today’s work:
After removing the wall board, the window frames fit more loosely because the wall board had been tucked behind it. The windows already leaked like crazy and we knew they needed to be sealed up.
On a whim, we picked up some of this sponge window seal tape at Lowe’s. It was double the width that we needed, but easy enough to cut down the middle to double the length of the tape. It’s flexible and spongy, and the adhesive side is quite sticky. We stuck this down to the backside of the window frames and re-installed them. The frames snugged up really nicely into the foam when screwed in. This tape is highly water resistant as well as helping with noise and vibrations. It really was the perfect solution, and we have not had a single issue with window leaks since then, even in pouring rain!
Well, this confirms where all of the leaks are! Our priority is getting the new ceiling vent installed, sealing the outside of the bus at the seams, and putting foam strips behind the window frames. As soon as we have a sunny day!
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