Framing a Bay Window

Wow am I ever behind on my blogs! It is July 7th today and I am just doing this blog now! This was the day we put up the bay window frame. I was working with Lorraine and Jim to do this, as well as Mike, Bruce, maybe Roger, etc. The most entertaining part of today by far was when I was hammering in part of the frame and Jim makes a comment about the intensity of my concentration … something connected with PMS … ? Well, I ignored that comment, but Gerhard was there and pipes up “what is PMS?” I couldn’t resist. Laughing, I looked straight at Jim and said “Okay go ahead; explain it!” He has never made a comment like that again. Thank you Gerhard!
That made him very aware of what he had just said, and that he would have to take ownership of his comment. He got cold feet, and couldn’t explain himself!

But I digress. At this point in time, I am still un-orange-shirted. Today, I will teach the world how to build a Bay Window in 6 easy steps! Try this at home - go ahead ... it won't work, but you can try it anyway!
1. To build a bay window, you start the same as you would with any section of frame; you toe-nail in your baseplate to the edge of the wall, making sure you are 3.5” in from the edge. (I vaguely remember something about Tyvek and PL Acoustiseal before you do that, but as I said, I am writing this July 7th for March 23rd, so the brain’s a little foggy on the details!)
2. You mark out your studs, jacks and cripples and build your frame. I believe the bay window we were building was 60”-h by 85”-w.
3. After you build your first frame you attach a 12” piece to each of the outside corners of the window, and start to build your next frame around those extensions. This frame is much smaller though, so it’s like that baby’s toy with all the coloured rings on the white pylon, each one smaller than the previous. Think of that toy in square form.
4. Once we got the second level of the bay window frame constructed, we covered the entire outer surface of the frame with OSB.
5. once that was on, we were able to erect that frame, all 700lbs of it (or at least it felt that way!)
6. Once it is up, you make sure it’s level, put your braces in place, and tada! Bay window!