Fixing Things Around The House

Since the landscaping is all done (at least for the time being) it was time to get moving on some of the other things around the house that need fixing.  The first thing to tackle was the windows.  While outside this spring, Kris noticed that the caulk around the windows was cracked and in places missing.  I haven't done anything with the caulk in the nearly 17 years that we have lived here and there are some gaps between the siding and the window frame as big as a quarter inch (just estimating).  After thinking about it, this may be what caused the window to crack this past winter.  If some water got in between the window frame and the house and then froze, I believe it could have pushed on the frame and caused it to bow, thus fracturing the window.  But that is just a theory, and since I already told the window company the seal failed (which technically it did) I am just keeping quiet.

So then today I started pulling all the old caulk out, and it was old!  There was actually two layers, so who knows how old the original stuff was.  In fact the caulk that was left in the gaps didn't look like caulk at all, but rather more like plumber's putty.  But it couldn't have been putty could it?  It chipped and cracked as I was scraping it, so who knows?  I managed to get the three lower windows in the back of the house done this afternoon and recaulked with new stuff.  Hopefully it will cure well enough that I won't have to worry much about it for at least a few more years.  So now I have nine more windows to get done before the summer is over.  I think I can handle that.