Our windows (in our near 70 year old house: it’s actually built in 54, so it’s 62 or 63) need replacing. This is being done. They’re here. They’re on the truck—but one of the installers loading the big one on evidently must’ve saved the window, but hurt his back, hospital visit; so the other installer came out and showed us (because we want to refinish the painted window moldings) how to dismantle them and not have 300 lbs of window (our 8×6 doublepane) fall on our heads—they go in from the inside, and some are fastened to the frame, but the big double-pane thermal sort are just set in from the inside and held by a molding.
Which we’re stripping, sanding, puttying as needed, and refurbing, because new moldings are spendy. We have a heat gun and a scraper and finish sander, and we also pulled the drywall under the window to deal with any lingering water-leak issues. There were. I cleaned it out while Jane continued at the brutal job of molding-stripping. So Monday the installers arrive with windows, and if we have the inner moldings and sills, which will hold the windows, we can add the trim molding as we get it ready to go back up…plus painting the new drywall section to match the rest of the living room.
Color us sore, and right now most of our clothes are in the washing machine, because what we’ve gotten off is just foul, and ticks off our allergies. So—at least we’re making progress, and will have the new windows for summer.
Actually—for next week.
All this while Jane does the accounting for taxtime and tries to convert us all to streaming media.
This is going to make a healthy difference in the house: that water leak in the window, caused because glass flows like a liquid, and over a long lifetime and evidence of a fire in the house—there is this large burned spot in the middle of my bedroom floor, which is why we couldn’t use the original floor—it’s sagged on either end. The installers say in big windows this is not uncommon—sometimes it changes shape so much that the installers have no tolerance at the top to get the thing out—but all told, not having mold anywhere in the house is a good thing. I did this job, because Jane reacts to mold much more so than I do, and I will tell you, the combo of new windows, no mold, and no carpet is already making a difference in the house, which already was clean. Both of us have allergies, and we ended up prioritizing this over other things.
You stripped off the old window molding because you wanted to reuse it for the new window — is the old window still in place and being held in by good wishes while you wait on the new window? Tacked in somehow? Covered by plywood? I can’t imagine a gaping hole in the front of your house, even if the weather is warming. And a fire?!? One wonders what other mysteries you may discover as you revamp.
Although DH wants to wait on new flooring until we are ‘out of cats’, I have found some Pergo I like at a price I like. I am waiting on a discount coupon to come in that I ordered online, and once I get it, I’m picking up the flooring and it is going into the newly emptied captain’s cabin to be stored until I can install it. I have also seen a sectional couch from Costco I want. Our old secondhand sectional has one arm rest held up by the neighboring recliner, but the other half can be put into the captain’s cabin for temporary overnighters. DH’s objections mainly come (I think) from the disruptions major remodeling will entail, couched as “The cats will freak.”
Yay for getting rid of mold and dust and mites!
I hope your allergies quiet down with all those sources of irritation gone.
Please take good care of yourselves and each other.
Indeed, glass is a wonderful substance! 🙂 It only appears to be a solid, but is actually a (super-cooled) liquid! 😮
Restoring Victorian houses’ “wavy” glass is a very “iffy” prospect, much to be applauded when done. Not only does the top of the pane get thin, but the glass itself becomes very brittle, and the variations causing the wavyness contribute. If/when they can be gotten out intact, they can be annealed to remove the brittleness. But restorers look at the cost and ask, “Why, when modern non-wavy glass is so cheap?”
Our house isn’t even 30 years old, yet, but we’ve also been prioritizing our “disaster repair” funds to take care of needed infrastructure repair/replacement tasks before the other more visible, but cosmetic, tasks. Where the mice have gotten into the walls and ceilings, we have mold, damaged fiberglass insulation, and damaged wiring due to accumulated crud/chewing from many generations. We’re saving for the next phase (the high ceiling and exterior walls of the living room). It would be nice to replace the windows, but that will have to wait; they leak heat, but not water, at the moment.
Fortunately, the repairs in the other parts of the house have made a big difference.
I hope the trim and molding at your house can be re-used. It must be difficult to find similar quality wood these days.
I don’t know how we’re going to make it this time—we have bare wood framing two large windows and a bath window plus their sills that need to be primed and painted, and the installers are coming at 9 in the morning. It is now 4. And we are so behind…we have not a prayer of getting all the trim molding ready: we’re only trying for the bare minimum that’s necessary to hold the windows in place. We are both in pain and exhausted, and morning looks real close. It may be a long night.
Wishing you strength and energy, and some lovely restoring sleep once the builders/glaziers are gone.
Can you paint only the sides that become unreachable when reattached now, and leave the rest for after it’s all in place again?
One hopes that you and Jane have gotten to a good stopping point by this time in the evening. Your apparently endless supply of energy astonishes me, and this is one who has said if we could harness the energy output of toddlers, we would never have another energy shortage!
Costco apparently ran out of stock on the couch we wanted, but I wasn’t quite ready to buy it just yet anyway. Maybe by the time I am, I’ll find another one as nice. The captain’s cabin has been tidied and scrubbed (I discovered several petrified hairballs, eew!) in preparation for storing flooring.
Glass doesn’t flow like a liquid. It’s an amorphous solid. The Wiki article is a good starting point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Behavior_of_antique_glass. It is a complex subject though.
Yay for clean house, and no mould.
You’re right! 😉
Hope that the preparation work took less time and effort than anticipated, that the installation went smoothly, that both of you are resting well and arise pain-free, and that the cats were not too upset by all the activity and strangers in their house!
Removing paint is a real PITA, isn’t it. I grew up in the painting business and we used real kerosene burning blowtorches.
I’ve installed big windows in just he way you describe: using stops rather than screwing them into the framing. I think it’s better if they float a bit, keeps them from cracking, a real problem with big windows.