Our First DIY Project

DARK!  DARK!  DARK!

The overall feeling of the house when we first saw it was dark.  Dark walls, dark curtains, blinds all pulled closed and tint on the windows.  We started wondering if we were buying the house from vampires, it was just that dark.  After closing, the very first project we wanted to do was remove some of the dark window tint.  It is on all the windows in the house, but we decided to remove it from some of the windows and sliders in the back of the house. 

We watched a few videos online on how to remove tint and we decided this was definitely a DIY job that we could bang out in a weekend while the Littles explored their new digs.

Here you can see the difference in the amount of light coming in as we peeled back the corner.

Things were looking good, and the tint was peeling back slowly but surely and we were feeling pretty good.

Here is Little Two helping me peel the tint.  Next to my head is another slider half way done.

Once the tint was off, we were feeling pretty good about our project, the only thing left to do was clean off the rest of the adhesive that was stuck to the windows.  We knew just what to do, in the videos, you simply spray a solution onto the window and wipe it right off.  Wow, we could not have been more naive about how difficult the adhesive removal would be.  The spray solution didn't work at all.  It was actually laughable.  We tried steaming the windows.  Nope.  Windex?  Nuh-uh.  Straight ammonia?  Forget it.  Acetone?  Ha!  That just smears it around and fogs the windows more!  Goo-Gone, Goof-Off, soap and water, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, oils, and more...nothing worked.  By this point, we were three days into the project with horribly smeared, sticky windows and no end in sight.  After countless hours searching the web, we decided to buy razors and go at these enormous 12 ft sliders inch by inch using hot, soapy water as a lubricant.  In the end each slider took a full day to scrape and then was still left with a film that a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and a whole lot of elbow grease were able to remove, but we were left with MANY scratches on the windows from the razors.  In addition, the pain of what we had hoped to be a weekend project, but had turned into two weeks of scraping and scrubbing was a tough wound to our egos!  Would I do it again?  NOPE!  I don't regret taking the tint off one bit, but I sure wish we had hired someone who knew what they were doing.  So far,  House 1  Us 0.  Hopefully next time we come out with a win on our side!