We bought our home in January of 2003, almost eight years ago, and have done very little home improvements on the house. It was built in 1992, so it’s starting to show it’s age. All of the cheap building materials they used to mass produce houses in the 90’s were reaching their limits and we finally decided to do some major improvements. We started the research, estimates, and quotes process at the beginning of the summer but with the imminent arrival of Baby Bateman 2.0 we suddenly had the urgency we needed to Get. Things. Done.

We prioritized the things that needed to be done, and that we could afford to do, this year: replace the aluminum windows and redo the roof. The windows were the first project to come together.

The front of our house, before:

The front of our house, after:

Ana’s room, before:

Ana’s room, during:

Ana’s room, after:

The nursery, before:

The nursery, during:

The nursery, after:

Our living room bay window, before:

Our living room bay window, during:

Our living room bay window, after:


Anyway, you get the idea. We replaced our crappy aluminum windows with triple pane composite windows that I LOVE. They are the kind that you can open in, so you can wash the outside of the windows from inside the house. They are amazing, fabulous, and beautiful.

Once the windows were done, we needed to touch up some of the paint (to cover caulk) so we decided to repaint the trim (and gutters) white to match the new windows. Luckily, Sim’s dad and brother were available (and skilled in this area) which kept Sim from having to scale the side of the house on his own.


We are still waiting for both of our sliding glass doors to be replaced. One arrived damaged and the other was the wrong size so they have them on a rush order. I’ll post pictures once those are installed.

Our next (and final, before baby arrives) extreme nesting project (Roof Edition) will happen in two weeks. Stay tuned!

All the pictures from the window replacement project are here.