Just ...Pop It Out! On Window Removal and DIY Optimism

Oh my, but how the days have flewn over Christmas and since our last visit to the boat in mid-December. After a month away we were anxious to return and get to work... though, admittedly some of us were slightly more so than others. Like, don't tell Ernesto, but the day we headed to Manitowoc I was actually more in the mood for a weekend-long nap than a weekend of physical labor, but, what can you do. If you find yourself on the horse, you might as well ride it, amiright? The horse in this case was a pre-planned weekend complete with a hotel reservation. 

The thing about me is, I'm the lazy one. It's funny that I'm categorically into the Doing of Grand Projects cause if I'm honest, I'd pretty much always prefer to be napping. But I know that it's fun when I'm in it and I find energy in the satisfaction of doing and having done something a little challenging. The lure of that satisfaction is a large part of why we ended up with a project boat in the first place. Now, we just have to balance Ernesto's unfailing and urgent energy for making progress with my slightly less ambitious, often less practical, but usually pretty optimistic nature, until we have a fully functional boat. Easy. 

See if you can detect these tendencies coming out in this silly video:

Anyway, when considering The Case of the Boat Windows, that balance of personalities came into play (as it always does) and yet yielded some positive results in the end (as it often does). The roller coaster went a little something like this:

Viewing the boat: Oh my, these windows are growing moss or something and don't even open. We'd definitely replace them and it will cost a fortune since obviously a high skilled professional will need to handle it all. We will just adjust our offer down to account for the massive bill we'll have. 

Having bought the boat: Alright, let's get some estimates! Oh, cool, no one seems to urgently need our business right now and it's impossible to pin down the cost of anything, and yet the gist is all the things are expensive. Ernesto: Hmmmmmm, maybe we will have to do it ourselves? Becca: Hilarious, sounds hard, no way. 

Later we meet with a marina service manager at the boat: Yeah, I mean we can take the windows out for you, but you seem like you are reasonably handy, maybe you wanna do the work yourselves? Labor costs money so you'll save a lot.....  Becca and Ernesto: Mmm, good point. So maybe... we can? Ok, let's try it.

Planning to go to the boat in December: Ernesto: OH NO. This may be impossible. It'll take the whole weekend, what were we thinking. We will never finish. Becca: NAH. Easy, we got it! It will probably take like 15 minutes. Just unscrew and pop them out, right?

At the boat: Ernesto: methodically trying to remove the window. Becca: JUST POP IT OUT. 

By the end of the weekend: Not quite as hard as Ernesto feared, way harder than Becca hoped. Go figure that after a roller coaster of optimism it landed somewhere in between and we did it. We win. The end. Thanks for reading!

Ok, just kidding, this is a project blog so we must include the how-they-did-it part. If you ever have some boat windows to remove, here's one possible process you could follow: 

1. Remove nasty blinds and corresponding hardware. Throw away with some satisfaction. Take down wood valences and handle with care. The legit teak bits are precious.  

2. Remove 10 million screws on all the inside trim rings. Make some sort of weird Red Green show style compound tool to get to the ones in the crevices. 

3. Send frames crashing loudly to the concrete floor behind the boat. Sweet obnoxious music to one's ears! 

4. Give your Ernesto the most annoying sounding tool on planet earth (Dremel Multi-Max, that is) and let him cut open the sealant around the outside of the frame for just long enough to get your ears ringing despite the cotton tufts you've stuck into them.

5. All together now, it's time to wedge and push. Wiggle and grunt. Heave and ho. Repeat until window loosens and can be shimmied on out. Squeal in delight when the POP IT OUT moment actually arrives! Repeat steps 1-5 so many times.

6. Claw, scrape, peal at the sticky sealant left behind. Is it tar? Is it gum? Is it both?

6b. Neglect to realize what a mess you're leaving on the deck and step all over it to make for a super tedious clean up later. 

7. Second to last window, time to break one for the sake of variety and adrenaline. Get out some tape and pray it doesn't actually shatter into a million little shards before you get 'er out. (Sorry, no pic!)

8. Out with the old - time to make some space! Assembly line all these hefty reject windows down two ladders to the floor. Then, rig up some boat lines for a harrowing 15' drop over the edge of the boat for the ones that are waaay too heavy to hand from one person to the other over a cliff. Carefully lower 80"x33" of potential glass chaos down until it lands, gentle as a butterfly, on the ground below. (Do not touch the fancy boat next door in the process.) Feel a little smug at how clever you are. Then do it again.

9. Time now for the actual reason you are removing the windows this weekend. You gotta get some new ones ordered if they're to make it in time for summer '22! So now get ready to battle giant swaths of trace paper when you're so tired and a little short tempered after working for 12 hours yesterday (yeah, save this step for day #2 for maximum annoyance). Tape the paper tight to the boat. Realize you cut it too small and do it again. You got this kiddo!

10. Find a blunt tool box pencil and go nuts with the shading around the rough opening of the window. Wonder the whole time if you're getting it well enough for the new window to actually fit. Contort, stretch, gotta get all the parts! Even though this part seems easy, remember how tired your little desk-job-person hands are from yesterday, seriously consider a little light cross training before the next boat weekend arrives. 

11. Celebrate what you've accomplished! So many windows! So much sealant. (Try not to mind that you couldn't get to the last one that has screws way behind the aft shower. Think of it as saving some fun for another day!)

* Optional but recommended step: eat occasionally! If your microwave, one of the few things you thought worked, actually sounds like a death machine when you fire it up, try using a kettle to boil water to ambiently "heat" your leftovers. It will get your rice lukewarm at best, but it's fine cause soon you'll discover Beernsten's in town has a whole menu of ice cream sundaes! (Look at Ernesto's eyes in the pic below and tell me they don't say "a new tradition was born today.")

After the many steps described above, we finally had the window sketches we needed in hand, and were ready to take a load off. Not only did we get to enjoy the satisfaction of another successful weekend at the boat, but we were also treated to a truly magical sunset (for the second visit in a row!) as we loaded the car and headed for home!