Window of oppertunity

Eric and I have decided to go become window installers. This window at the back of the house has been broken from day 1. Being distracted by bigger and better things, and not sure quite how to do it, we closed the room off and ignored it. My mom is coming to visit for a few days, and we through she'd like a draft free, not open to the elements room to stay in.

We had a window guy come give us an estimate for the front window (which can't come out because of the goofy wood trim that was applied) and he pointed out that all our windows are 2 storm windows not real windows. Are you kidding me? So now add all new windows to the mix on top of the new siding, new kitchen, new flooring, new electrical....I don't think it will ever end....but I got it for a screamin' deal....

Our original measurements for the window were 30.5 x 61.5. We looked for a used window at Second Use and the Re-Store to no avail. Off to home depot and we found a 30x60 in stock. We knew it wasn't quite the right size, be we needed a window now, my mom's going to be here in 3 days. We could make it work. No matter what I was bound and determined to get this window in the wall. We pulled the old one out, it was pretty easy, it was screwed into the outside like a typical storm and the 2nd storm was just free floating in the frame. Out it all came. We had to make some shims out of 2x2 that we had left over which we ripped down on our handy dandy new(to us) table-saw off Craigslist. At the recomendation of the Home Depot employee that sold us the window we used this tape around the inside of the window frame and then again on top of the flange around the window I think the idea is to give a complete air tight seal around the window. Once we were done all that, the window fit so perfectly snug that it stayed in place without any screws.

While it did take some trial and error, we put the window in upside-down not thinking it made a difference, and made a couple foibles, what the window people charge for this service that is soooo simple blows our mind.