Another unfun "surprise"

I had a great post lined up in honor of Valentine's Day about love and houses but then came this weekend's gutter problems and now another issue today, so a post about love will have to wait.

Last night when D was knocking yet more ice from the roof, I heard a loud crash. D said that it was just the sound of breaking ice but it really sounded like glass. Today I stepped into to the basement to find this:

Here's a picture with the flash so you can better see the evil-looking glass shards hanging from the frame:

Evidently the falling chunks of snow and ice shattered one of our basement windows. We are replacing six windows and none of the two that broke this year. Of course. So I cleaned up the glass pieces (which were everywhere) and changed the kitty litter (which was right under the window and ended up filled with little pieces of glass) and had a wonderful (and, fortunately, tall) friend cover up the hole:

Unlike our last breakage, we are going to have to fix this problem fairly quickly. First, because there is actually a hole, instead of a hairline crack, so it's really cold and also unsafe (though it would take a pretty brave and skinny burglar to get inside). Second, because it's at ground level, the melting snow is going to rip through that cardboard. Now we have to find a glass place and learn how to do some serious caulking. Apparently this is not something handled by windows companies, who only deal with new installations or replacements of full window sashes--nothing as unsophisticated as a pane of glass. Time to turn to google....

The unfun part of snow

Our house has received a lot of snow this winter. It's been very pretty and we've been very fortunate to not lose power, unlike many of our neighbors. Unfortunately the gutters are getting hammered. The snow is melting, then freezing into, onto, and over the gutters.

The front of our house gets the majority of the sun and is suffering most acutely from the ice issue. I've been knocking off the snow and ice from the edge of the roof every day. It hasn't been too hard, since I can reach the roof with a shovel from the ground.

I haven't been worrying about the back of the house since it's perpetually in the shade and shouldn't get the snow-melt to ice issue.

Wrong.

I think the kitchen vent in the bottom of the photo may have contributed to the extreme melting. I knocked the ice off, but the gutter was "linear-ized". That is to say, the gutter has changed in shape from a "U" to a "I". That'll probably have to be replaced come spring. Unless it can be bent back into shape.

Unfortunately that wasn't all. 

This portion of the gutter toppled down when I tried to knock the ice off it. The screws just ripped out of the wood trim. When the snow goes away we'll have to evaluate whether it can be bent back and salvaged. Probably not, though.

Unfortunately, the gutter looks like a continuous piece, so the entire gutter for the back of the house may have to be replaced.