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attic, part 9:
redoing the windows
eyes, windows, soul, yada yada yada
There are two windows in
the attic: a double-hung window facing east that gets gorgeous morning
sunlight, and a wide and low casement window facing south (onto a
two-story apartment building -- eh, there's always a catch). Like the
windows in the rest of the house, they're original. Even the glass is
original, and you know how we love that
imperfect, wavy old glass. The casement window even has two side
panels that swing out, with screens on hinged frames on the inside that
swing inward. Obviously, there's no way we were getting rid of them. Of
course, this is Hall House, which means they'd been a tad, er, neglected
and something needed to be done about them in the course of renovating the
attic.
The casement window has
some serious weather and water damage on the outside and will probably
need to be replaced like the dining room window was a few years ago. But
that's time and expense we just couldn't afford right now. Both windows
have the original 6x2 hardwood trim in long, heavy pieces. They were both
stained in the same dark color as the trim and paneling downstairs but the
finish had long since dulled and since we wanted the room to be light and
airy anyway, we decided to prime and paint them.
The window trim and sills
came down during the demolition phase and were set aside for later.
Translation: "carried down to the basement and stacked against a far wall
until it was time to work on them". And that time, as we all know, didn't
come for nearly a year. In the meantime, we pretty much got used to the
windows looking like this:
By the time the priming
and painting commenced in the rest of the room, we'd all but forgotten
exactly how all the trim fit back together on each window. Note to self:
label trim pieces as you remove them for easy assembly later. It's like we
never learn our lesson or something.
The double-hung window,
other than a hole in the upper glass that looks like it may have been made
with a BB gun (and that we'll reglaze at a later date) was in decent
shape. We didn't even have to replace the sash weights or cords. The
screens on the casement windows were seriously nasty -- years of dirt and
grime weren't helped any by a year spent in our basement. But some
hardcore scrubbing with dish soap and a toothbrush (or ten) and those
suckers were looking brand spanking new. Brand Spanking New, dudes.
And then there was the
hardware. The double-hung window had no fastener or handle. The screen
hinges were as grimy as the screens, which meant even more scrubbing with
a toothbrush toothbrushes. And one of the window hinges
was missing a hinge pin so the window hung cockeyed when you swung it out
too far. There were no handles to make opening and closing easy and the
only way to actually fasten the windows was with a cheesy and oft-painted
hook-and-eye.
After two coats of primer
and three coats of our trim color of "Coconut Milk" (that stain was
seriously dark), the trim was ready to be reinstalled. Of course, we'd
forgotten to take into account the new thickness of the drywall vs. the
old thickness of the paneling, which meant playing around with added
thicknesses behind the trim itself and strategic cutting of the sill
pieces. And because the trim hadn't laid flat before we removed it, let
alone when we put it all back together, there was experimenting to be done
with "L" brackets and 45° angles. Geometry rulez!
It took a week and a half
to reassemble the trim pieces and put them up. The double-hung window took
the longest, which is odd considering it's the smaller and less
complicated of the two. By the time it was all put back together, the
south window trim was another inch thick and so heavy that that end of the
house will probably start sinking.
Next it was time for the
hardware. The
hinge pins in one of the side windows
still had to be replaced, which required a dirty two-hour dig through the
boxes of hinge pins over at Hippo Hardware. But worthwhile, because Sal
found what we needed and the window now works like it should. He also
spent a considerable amount of time in dirty bins at Hippo digging for
matching window handles and latches. (Upon telling a friend this, she
declared that we're both insane. Like that's news.) He came
up empty on latches for the casement window, but scored on everything
else.
Luckily, we found what we
needed at Van Dyke's Restorer's,
where we found the
window stay arms (for casement windows that open outward -- the arms
let you control how far you open the window) and some great latches. I
know I say it all the time, but seriously, how did people do this before
the internet? Seven to ten business days later, we had our hardware in
hand and not long after, installed. At which point we declared the windows
Officially Done.
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