Since we moved into this house, we’ve been living in a fish bowl. The house has lots of windows. It’s great because it makes the house airy and bright; but it also makes it easy for everyone walking or driving by to see all the way through. They’ve been able to see our front room as it was filled with boxes, our kitchen as we progressed through the renovation, our cats as they watched the world go by, and our TV show as we watched at night when we were able to take a break.
Old windows are a hotly-debated topic. A quick internet search will find old house aficionados who consider replacing old windows to be heresy. They argue that the rippled glass is beautiful, that the pocket weights operate far better than new mechanisms, and that, coupled with storm windows, they are just as energy efficient as new windows. On the other side of the argument are old house owners who are thrilled to get new windows with high efficiency, better solar protection, and more noise prevention.
We have been torn on the issue. We love the ripply glass and the window mechanisms are superior craftsmanship. All of our windows needed work, and some were simply beyond repair. Unless you do the work yourself, the cost to restore a window can easily equal the cost to replace it. In the end, we did some of both. For the replacements we used Marvin wooden windows that fit into the old window frames. They don’t ripple, but they don’t change the look of the house either.
David had to learn how to restore the other windows. He used The Window Sash Bible as his guide. On average, by working evenings and weekends, he can complete two windows a week. He isn’t done yet, but he’s made a lot of progress.
The Process
David first removed the old windows in order to get access to the window mechanism.
Next, he opened up the pockets where the weights hang in order to rehang the existing lead weights. Our windows originally had the weights hung with rope, but many had been replaced with chain. David removed the old rope and chain and replaced it with new, replica chain as you can see below.
He covered the windows in plastic so he had a few days to strip, repaint, and reglaze the window sashes. Of course, the wind and rain storms seemed to occur every time we had plastic coverings. The first night with plastic windows, we were out in the storm adding more staples to keep the plastic in place and the rain outside.
Reglazing consists of removing the old window putty and replacing it with new putty. The old putty had hardened and cracked over the years. Unfortunately, removing it is a pain-staking ordeal as you don’t want to break the glass. David got a heat gun to make the process a little bit easier. Unfortunately, he still broke or cracked a couple of window panes. The experts say that they have about 10% breakage. Ideally, you would replace the window pane with rippled glass. That can be hard to find and it is really expensive! We purchased a new pane from Bendheim Restoration Glass. It’s beautiful but it is 10x as costly as regular window glass.
Once the windows were refinished and the frames were repainted, David placed them back in the window frame and attached the new chain. For the window frames that were still “square,” this is a relatively simple process. Unfortunately, one corner of our house has settled a bit and this affected some of the windows. When windows are at a slant, the weights don’t slide up and down as easily as they should. We have one window that we can open only if we work at it, so we will probably just keep it closed.
To add the finishing touches to the windows, we polished the brass handholds and added vintage brass locks. We found a going-out-of-business sale online and purchased all of the antique window locks that were available.
The Results
The clean glass only made it easier for others to see in our windows. Happily, I can say that we have also added new window coverings throughout the entire house. Arnie from Bergen Interiors helped me choose materials, measured, and installed the window coverings. We chose a mixture of white wooden slat blinds and fabric Roman shades from Hunter Douglas. For the main rooms downstairs, I splurged with automated shades; I can set a schedule and they open and close automatically. We are no longer living in a fish bowl!
Our Cranbury House 