CONSTRUCTION

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A.K.A.: The Elephant in the Room (well, in the House)

We couldn't start changing single windows to double windows in my office
until I had cleared away many years of detritus from NPR, Amherst College,
The Briar Gallery, and various writing and photographic projects.

I procrastinated as long as I could ... but by late spring,
my resistance cracked and the clean-up began.

After the work-desk, main computer and audio system have been
moved into the Blue Room (see below), chaos still reigns in the office:

Above: facing east from doorway (towards previous location of computer, etc.)

Below: looking south towards air conditioner. One printer has been moved
across the hall, one printer remains. Most of what you see will wind up
in the Brute trash cans.

Penultimate stage of office clean-up: mountains of stuff in dumpster - smaller amount
transferred into "Really Useful [plastic] Boxes" (made in England).
There's still another day of work before the carpenters can take over.

Below: Exterior view of future east-facing double-windows.
They'll be six-inches off-center within the office itself but I think that
from the outside, the placement looks more purposefully asymmetrical
(instead of being an accident). None of the first and second floor windows
line up perfectly one above the other.

Below: Southern window finally liberated from old, moldy
(but very effective) air conditioner

Two new double-windows will be placed the same distance from the house-edge

Removal of plasterboard (which was installed in square panels):

The walls are filled with blown-insulation (cellulite) installed last fall.

Note that the two windows will be equidistant from the southeast corner.
(The south window will be centered on that wall, while the east window
will be six-inches south of center on its wall. But the permanent placement of my large file
cabinets in northeast corner of the office will help the window look more-or-less centered.)

The southern window shows old insulation, non-insulation, and blown insulation.

At the end of the first day, cellulite insulation has been removed from around the east window,
new studs are in place, and main framing for the new double-window is in place.
(If I decide I want to keep the original plasterboard walls - and not fill in the removed
sections with sheetrock - the entire wall will have to be replaced, since you can't really
"patch" and old plaster wall - very difficult to match the new and old sections.)

(In the above, a plywood board covers the hole left
by the removal of the old single window.)

Below you can see the special way the plasterboard was installed back in 1962:
paper backing, two thick layers of gypsum, topped by a thin but sturdy layer of
"finish" plaster - white and smooth.

Discovery, July 9th: The walls do not extend behind the baseboard heating pipes; this means there's an open space between the floor and the top of the baseboard units ... which creates a broad mouse-highway around the office floor and up into the walls. Presumably the baseboard heating system was installed before the plasterboard walls.

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