Storm ripped our window out and off…
Be back later after I fix some windows, if possible. Buddy (Vova) came down and we had a look at the window situation. He says he has two one window and they are good. He says he has what it takes to fix them. I really only need one and then I have to get trim board, for the old beautiful trim is gone, I will have beautiful plain boards and paint them white. Actually, I will save the front window as original, for I have extra parts now and the side windows do not need the fancy stuff…
Be back later…
Kyle
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A Russian and an American: Rebuilding Windows…
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- Vova had an old window…
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- Two windows created this one…
Vova had an old window laying around. It was 5 cm wider and 5 cm taller. The width was workable, just barely. The old window was way too small in the first place and the new window was just too big. Tried handsaw and that was just too much for grouchy guys. Tried chisels and that was just too much for grouchy guys. Then I brought out the chainsaw and that worked just perfect. We cut 5 cm off the top of the window and ground out a 1 cm from the left side of the window frame and with a little bit of grouchiness, it all fell into place…
The biggest issue was cutting glass by hand. Neither one of us would make a good living at cutting glass, but we did it. Rebuilding the frames of the windows wasn’t too bad and we found that with a little effort, there is enough solid wood in the windows now to hold up for several more years now. I am proud of what we did…
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Then Vova brought by two posts and a board. As if we did not do enough today, we fixed the picnic table bench. Vova likes to sit in the shade of the trees and the uncluttered yard we have. Very unlike his yard and eat lunch and drink his vodka. I have said before, I enjoy his company and having him as a friend is why the window got fixed today…
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It has been interesting today.
Halfway through the day, it dawned on me that here is a Russian and here is an America, working side by side with poorly developed communication skills at either parties command…
Yet we succeeded in repairing some major issues and laughter was the most common occurrence. Even after hours and hours of sweat inducing work, rain on its way, humidity sky high and neither one understanding the other 60% of the time. We still laughed together, when our last piece of glass, cracked in half, as we set it in place. He said something that I knew was not a pleasant word in Russian and I said, a not so pleasant word in English and we looked at each other and almost rolled laughing on the ground. Which would have been a poor idea, because we had plenty of glass shards everywhere by that time…
Then I asked myself, “Why can’t we be friends?”
Vova and I are!
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…