French apartment renovations, Day 337: Windows, joist hangers, & upholstery

 5,054 steps

Another momentous day. I started off the morning by cutting out the fabric for the first bottom chair cushion, with Ivy helping. Then we had a RDV at the window factory with Comrade; he brought his little delivery van to help us transport the windows home. We were very impressed with the quality and sturdiness of the windows. 

Oh, and our car battery might need replacing. We put our flashers on for about 15 minutes while loading the windows. Our battery was nearly dead when we tried to start the car. We've been having issues with the battery going dead quickly for the past few weeks, enough that we recently bought a portable battery charger. It's brilliant--so much easier than jump-starting. Comrade was impressed. 

With the windows dropped off back home and deposited in Le Catamaran, Eric had to leave for soccer practice. My dad and I got all of the joist hangers installed--another huge step forward. My mom started taking apart our dining room chair seats for reupholstering. 3 of the 6 now have no seat bottom, so we are sitting on small pieces of plywood. She also helped with the usual soccer dropoff/pickup and grocery shopping on the way home. 

Once Eric came home, we installed all 3 windows. One of them has a fixed pane that we had to put in place after the frame was installed, and we can't figure out how to snap in the trim pieces that hold the glass in place. So for now it's wedged in with some small strips of wood until we figure it out. But otherwise, we have WINDOWS!!!! 

 

I got ready to sew the first cushion this evening, but I realized I needed to take a break. I just got Zari to bed--with a nice long back massage and back scratch--and it's already 10:30 pm. My first down time of the day. I know I should maybe stop work a bit sooner, but it's so satisfying to see significant progress. 

Tomorrow we're having Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. I'm making sourdough and my mom will make something with brussels sprouts. This will be fun! And we get a day off from renovating. 

On Friday's to-do list: 
- Take off the steel door on the front apartment and have the top 30 cm cut off (it will be in the way of the mezzanine). This will be a temporary door until we put a new wood one in
- Install the joists! 

My parents leave in 2 weeks. It's been going way too fast.