Oops!

When one tries to do things back to front or inside to out, one dramatically increases one's odds of screwing up...

I had an oh, sh@t moment in the shower the other day. Caren and I spent all that time last weekend putting in the kitchen window and trimming it out. Now we might have to tear the whole thing out come Spring.

The windows we purchased have a nail fin around the frame... which means that the window sits in the rough opening in the frame and the nail fin sits flush on the sheathing that covers the exterior of the house.  The only problem is that our house doesn't have any sheathing...

We installed the window and secured it to the 2x4's that make up the rough opening. I didn't even think about the sheathing... until I was in the shower on Monday morning...

I'm guessing that I didn't think about the sheathing because Caren and I had not "officially" decided to sheath the house when we replace the siding. With the horizontally hung clapboard siding, sheathing is not necessary. If one intends to wainscot the lower third of the exterior with corrugated metal and if one intends to side the house with vertically hung board and baton sheathing is a necessity...

Which brings me back to the window...

If the nail fin is installed on the framing, then the sheathing will cover the nail fin. What then, if, in the future, we have to replace the window because, say, a teenage boy throws a snowball thru it... cut back the sheathing and siding that is on top of it?

If we take the window out come Spring and install it correctly it normally wouldn't be a big deal. However, recall how much labor went into the trim on the interior. If the window is moved out three-quarters of an inch to accommodate the sheathing, half of the interior trim has to be remade from scratch... ugh...

Understand any of that??? Me neither, until I thought about it in the shower last Monday morning.

I'm sure that there are many creative ways that I can rectify the situation without tearing the window out. I have until next Spring to think about it, but for now, I will not be installing anymore windows until the sheathing is on the side of the house...