Snow Day!

February 17, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 1 Comment

Brrrrrrrrr! We are weathering our once-a-year South Carolina snowstorm…so, of course, we had to run over to the Nest to snap a picture of it covered with a dusting of the white stuff!

Truthfully, we were a little anxious about how the big, beautiful trees in our yard would hold up under all the ice. Thankfully, we only had damage to some smaller trees and few little limbs come down. Whew! We were very lucky. We are in the queue with a local tree trimming company to come take a look at our four giant water oaks and do some basic maintenance, taking down some large limbs that hang over the house and our neighbor’s yard, etc. Hopefully, we will get this done before the sap starts to rise in early spring.

Here’s a shot of our little cottage in the snow:

How cute! Now, c’mon SPRING!!

Cedar Fever—our shingles are here!

February 10, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 2 Comments

Moving right along! Our pallet of Cedar Shake replacements has arrived (Boy, do they smell good!) and repairs are underway. Our plan is to salvage as much of the original Cedar Shake siding as possible and patch in wherever necessary.

“Feathering” these shakes into the existing siding is a painstakingly tedious job, but our guys seem to be making great strides each day. Provided we have good shakin’ weather, this project should be complete by next week.

Here’s a sneak peep at our Nest’s new feathers:

Our new shakes bring all the boys to the yard!

Shake upgrades underway!

Matthew loves the smell of Cedar and progress in the morning…

Out with the old, in with the new – brand new windows to take in the views!

February 8, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 2 Comments

This is a game changer, y’all! We searched and researched, discussed and debated window styles, brands, and what best suited the era and architecture of our little nest. If you’ve ever shopped for windows, then you know – it’s a lot to take in.

Matthew and I felt like we deserved a graduate degree in window terminology by the time we had made our final selection. Muntins, Mullions, and Mullings, oh my! The lingo is intense, but all very interesting…

So, for those of you who speak this language and are interested in the details of what we chose: Matthew and I went with Windsor brand windows, a double-hung, aluminum clad wood, architectural grade window with simulated divided light in a “six over six” light pattern with muntins (or grilles) on the inside, outside, and in-between the glass.

Or this:

Basically, we went super traditional. We were set on keeping the new look as close to the original true divided light wood windows as possible. Windsor also gives you the option to have exterior trim added to the window at the factory, which was very appealing to us since none of the original window trim was salvageable. Brand new windows + trim = instant gratification! Easy decision. 🙂

Although most of the original windows were far beyond repair, we were able to save two of the most special ones and have them restored by a local company. The little round one in our master bedroom and the master bathroom window with a diamond pattern were definitely worth keeping!

Here’s a look at the removal and installation process:

Removing the old windows!

First window is about to go in…

Yay! Master bedroom window is in.

All front windows are installed.

Rear windows going in! (This is our Great Room / rear entrance.) We added the round window after we vaulted the ceiling in this room and added two casement windows in place of a bank of three double hung windows because our TV will go against this wall. 🙂