Putting in a Window (in an existing wall)
This project was something I wanted to do since purchasing the house in November, 2018. So, nearly two years later…I now have natural light in the only bathroom in the house!
My bathroom is between the master and a second bedroom (windows pictured above) and was a narrow thing with no natural light. The empty space in the wall just begged to be popped out and a little skinny window placed in it, so I bought a window ($120) and made an appointment with my dad to come out and help me demolish. Okay…he demolished…I watched. This was a build/project I didn’t feel I could experiment with - plus, I didn’t have the necessary tools!
We started with covering the rose bush, and then drilled holes to make it easier to get the saw in to cut out the sheetrock and drywall. Our goal was to make the window at the same level as the rest of the windows, so inside the bathroom, it looks a little too far down in comparison to the shower vinyl. But, it would be the same distance from the ceiling as the rest of the houses, so I was good with the position. We did center it, however, between the left and right walls in the bathroom (and it actually turned out to be centered between the two bedroom windows too!)
Oh my, there’s a hole in my house!!!
I love my dad - I couldn’t have done this without him!
Once the initial cut was made, my dad finessed the hole so the vinyl window would sit on the “sill” and we would screw it into the side of the house. Then the flange would be covered with trim on the outside.
We stuffed the installation back up above the cut, and then cut 2x4s that I had on hand to fit between the studs to create a frame. We had to do a little bit of creative shimming to get things filled in…it makes a funny story for a future homeowner who decides to tear this down to wonder what in the heck we did!. I used a 1x6 as the “shelf” to go on top of the frame and below. 2x4 studs were the sides. Then we inserted the window - it fit like a glove!
While Dad was busy cutting and then screwing in pieces, I was his wood cutter - I did the shelf pieces and the 2x4 stud fillers as needed. I also worked on the trim. The other windows had trim as 2x4s that ran the height of the house with the siding going a different direction between the trim pieces to make it stand out differently. I didn’t want to do that. And I didn’t want to use 2x4s - that seemed overkill for my little window! So I settled on using 1x2s on the side and 1x3s on the top and bottom and frame the window that way. I painted the pieces the same dark gray and got ready to put them on to hide those ugly cracks! (Dad caulked around the window before we put up the trim)
In this picture, you can kind of see the framing. I plan on covering the wood with the same material as either the floor or the counter…this will be in part 2 of the bathroom remodel. I bought trim to hide the drywall around the edge of the window on the wall to give it a finished feel and painted it white.
And it’s all done! Waiting for the caulk to dry so the sheen isn’t there, but the window is installed in an existing wall and we didn’t have to demolish the whole house! Even though it’s a small window, it really does brighten up the bathroom and even makes the ceilings feel taller. I’m very pleased with how it turned out and, again, I couldn’t have done it without my dad’s help! <3
