90 Minutes of My Life That I'll Never Get Back

Plasticizing the windows.  That's what we call it.  It falls under my column of jobs to do and I simply hate it. 

Today was an unseasonably warm day, and since I dragged my feet all through November (did I mention I HATE DOING THIS?), I had to git 'er done. 

When we moved into our house in 2002, all the windows were new.  Little did we know they must have been installed wrong, because most of them leak like a sieve.  That's being nice.  Freezing bitter cold Canadian winter air blows through them with such force, you may freeze to death while eating dinner at the kitchen table.  I almost have.

I only plasticize the first floor.  I should probably do all the windows, but the others aren't as offensive.  And since doing the first floor is all I can handle, it's all that gets done.

So to celebrate many years of plasticizing, here's how we do it up in here.

Put the double sided tape around all 4 edges of the window.  Overlap the corners, so there aren't any gaps in the adhesive. 

Remove the tape covering and put up the plastic, starting with the very top of the window.  Move down the left and right sides at the same time, keeping the plastic relatively taut.  Leave the bottom as the last part of the plastic pressed onto the adhesive.

Then start blowin'.

Keep blowing until there are no wavy streaks in the plastic anywhere.  I even blow along the outside of the adhesive edges to shrink the plastic as much as I can.

You'll have ugly edges...

...just cut them close.  But not too close.

Then you're done.

But if you're me, you have to do two more windows.

Before

After

Before

After

I know.  These are horrible pictures.  It's a horrible job.  I'd rather clean the kitchen floor on my hands and knees with a toothbrush.  I can find joy in that.  I find no joy in applying almost-impossible-to-remove adhesive to my windows and covering them with awful looking plastic that stays up months longer than any holiday decoration ever does.

So this post is an official GOODBYE to plasticizing.  With our Springtime main floor renovation, comes brand new windows.  That will be installed correctly.

Farewell, dear plastic.  Although I've become a pro at installing you, I can't say I'll ever look back fondly at our times together.