Making Hangar Loft Window Plans

Today’s post is a project that’s been ongoing since the moment we yanked everything out of the back of the airplane hangar where we plan to build our home. I’ve started calling the space the loft, because it sounds less like a bunch of propellers and oil cans than saying, “Oh yes, the hangar house!”

But you know me. Late to the fashion party, I also just discovered that Ann Taylor Loft is now just “Loft” as well. (Don’t tell me its been that way for years. The No New Clothes Challenge has me ignorant on more levels than a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream.)

Here we are with the next phase of our remodel: deciding on windows in the loft. Our space is long and narrow (only 12 feet deep!), so we feel like it makes sense to be really strategic about windows and skylights. We uncovered a window during all of our decluttering in the former attic. There’s another in the old guest room. We want more.

A little mental furniture arranging is pretty important right now. We need to decide where the walls will be dividing each space. Remember this old drawing below?

It’s time to get more exact.

Martin’s just as eager as me to move on from the tire house. I watched him push aside his breakfast dishes and jump right into plans. Do you recognize his pencil? So awesome.

Also with him is Modern Hydronic Heating. I swear he’s read that book more times than you and I have read Little House on the Prairie. Combined. His drawings are always precise. He always seems to have a scale or ruler on hand. In this case, he also has a tape measurer (the little brown box).

Not me.

My drawings are not so scientific… even when I use some basic cad drawings Martin built on the computer. I guess I’m too eccentric for that! :)

In the end, we’re able to come together. I can just look at Martin’s detailed drawings and understand what he’s envisioning. Meanwhile, I have to talk him through my wiggly lines and remind him: I did not measure. (I learned to clarify my non-mathematical approach the hard way in our German kitchen remodel. I doodled an idea for some shelves on graph paper. Martin grabbed the saw and applied the spacing exactly how I drew it. It still cracks us up!)

From there, we head to the hangar and start talking about windows.

Before I dive into the plans here, I thought I should pause and note. We got this space as is. The junk, the dirt, the possible vintage photos and possible treasures – they all came with the package. I do not like going through people’s things and deciding what is worth keeping or not. Having the guys at the dump know you – BY NAME – is not something worth boasting. Yet the truth is that some people just can’t do it themselves for whatever reason. Martin and I have been lucky to have the former owner as a mentor… a friend. We are thankful Every Single Day.

We couldn’t afford to buy a clean, empty hangar like our friends down the way. We certainly couldn’t afford new construction. By quitting our 9 to 5 jobs to live the way we want, DIY has been a serious means of financial survival around here. So my sleeves are rolled up. I want to build a house. No scratch that. A loft!

Here are the window ideas we’re considering for the living room/kitchen:

The kitchen will be on the right end. Do we want a window above the sink on the far side there? We stuck it in to see.

Here’s that first picture again just to give you a perspective of what we’re thinking:

We still have to tear down the old framing one of these days. We want the ceiling of the house to match the roofline.

Then Martin got a great idea. What if we spray painted our window idea right onto the insulation walls? (For those of you who asked – that white wall around the entire hangar with metal bars going across them is actually insulation. It’s about 6 inches deep, an R-value of around 24. Scroll up to where I’m gesturing about windows (aka giving a big TIME OUT sign). You can see some ripped insulation bursting at the seam there.)

Some lines were painted. And that’s about as far as we got. We had to stop because of YOU GUYS. I had baby books and travel journals to take to the post office. (thank you)

Hopefully we can get all the details figured out in the next few days (by we, I primarily mean Mister Measures, of course). Then it’s off to town to meet with the local window shop. That gal and I are already on a first name basis just like the dump dudes and me. Oh but this time, it’s a good thing.

Cutting windows out of a hangar? That’s going to be interesting.

Any of you always doodle out all of your ideas like me? Or are you more like Martin – dotting every i and erasing every line that extends .001 millimeters too far?