From the windows to the walls

We needed a little help on a couple of projects. I'm a little too short to hold drywall overhead while BA attaches it to the ceiling, so we decided to hire a handyman (Justin) out of Austin for the day. He did such a great job with the drywall that we had him come back the next day to help tape and float (and to me, "tape and float" sounds like a magic trick, but actually refers to taping the seams between the drywall and the smoothing mud over them. Wouldn't "tape and mud" be more accurate?)

So, Justin's help freed BA up to do other things (like scare me 1/2 to death by climbing up on the roof):

Justin is the tall guy inside the box. And my crazy husband is,
of course, the guy on top of it. 

Justin advertises on Craig's List, so if you are in the Austin area and need someone who is dependable, pleasant, and a hard worker, we definitely recommend him. 

Another thing that we needed a bit of help with is welding. We found a great guy named Thadius at Happy Trails Metalcraft. You can visit their website here. Thadius did an amazing job. He talked to us about what we wanted, and then was careful to measure and cut a neat, steady square so that we could use the cut-out metal as a shutter. We really lucked out in finding TWO good workers on this trip, and would recommend Thadius as well!

Here's what he did:

The sparks were flying! I was outside on fire watch.

A nice perforated square

The square begins to open...

We have a window! (That's Thadius on the right.)

And a window frame!

And an awesome, one-of-a-kind shutter!

The really cool metal window frame that you see in the above picture, while welded in place by Thadius, was custom-built for us by one of our neighbors. He makes some incredible furniture and fire-pits out of metal, but I forgot to ask his permission to include his name or website on here (I'll do that soon, because he makes some beautiful stuff that ya'll will love!)