Before I start this post, I should give a quick vocabulary lesson. If something is shaped like a circle, it’s “circular”. Like a rectangle? Rectangular. Like a triangle? Triangular. What about if it is shaped like an oval? Ovular? Incorrect! That word nothing to do with geometry and a great deal to do with reproduction. I found this out when I submitted a formal report for my bosses to review…that was an interesting e-mail to read. The correct word is “elliptical.”

So, with that said, our bedroom has an elliptical window that sits directly above our bed and looks out over the front yard. While this is a neat little window, it lets in too much light when the sun rises. (Normally, we’re up before the sun, but the girls have spoiled us recently and let us stay in bed past 6:15!) And, since our neighbors are odd folk, they like to keep their flood lights on at night and pointed directly at this window. We need some method of blocking out light. As an interim solution, we have been stuffing a pillow into the window. While effective, it sure does look funny when you drive past the house. Butterfly has also learned that removing this pillow tweaks her mother a bit, so each morning she climbs up and removes the pillow with a wry grin. We need a better solution.

Since we moved into the house, we’ve had great plans for this window. First, we were going to have a stained glass window made. Time passed and that never happened. Then, we decided that hanging a curtain in front of the window would be cheaper. We even bought a little curtain rod to put above it. More time passed, fewer things got done. Then we decided that stained glass was the best route to take again. Nothing happened.

This weekend I decided that if something was going to be done, I’d have to take matters into my own hands (because they weren’t in my hands before?) I have some spare wood and a pencil. I think I can work up a temporary solution that looks a little better than having a Goofy pillowcase staring out of our window.

I measured and calculated. I drew out a bunch of lines on my board, and sketched out the shape…which reminded me how much I miss football. I toiled away with my trusty scroll saw under the hot sun (shade wasn’t available until another 2 hours into the project - foreshadowing) and eventually my shape was cut.

I put my board into the window and….ah man! how can it be that short on the sides. I remeasured, went back outside and sure enough. I’d written down 28.75″ instead of 29.75″. But, I could still salvage the project…So, from the big football, I cut a slightly smaller football. I traipsed back upstairs, installed the smaller board and…too big. I marked the places to sand, back downstairs, sanded, upstairs, mark, downstairs, sand, upstairs, mark, downstairs, sand….eventually my creation was small enough to be jammed into the window. See for yourself.

Currently, this thing isn’t very pretty. It’s just a piece of wood shoved into an oblong window. The goal, however is that I’ll put handles on it (for easy installation and removal). Then, I’ll paint it white to match the rest of the window. The wife and I have toyed around with the idea of letting the girls paint on the board or put their handprints on it. Realistically, it’s taken us 7 years just to get the piece of wood into the window. I expect it will be another 7 before we remove it and do anything with it. Besides, nothing brings out the Redneck Motif like a piece of board in the window. Our neighbors are proud.