I began work last fall on restoring a couple of windows from what will one day be the master bedroom of the Crackhouse, and have just now gotten around to finishing them up. The stripped, reglazed and repainted sash had been gathering dust in the basement while other projects supreceded them, but here they are at long last. I (obviously) haven’t done anything with the casings—this is because I’ll have to pull the casings off to demo all the walls in this room at some point and I figure I’ll deal with the casings then. I did have to remove them, though, in order to replace the ropes for the sash weights, and I installed new parting beads and window stop that I had milled at a local lumber yard, as well as installing all new spring bronze weather stripping.

This is an example of one of those sorts of projects that you just have to learn how to do yourself or it’ll never get done because the only sort of window repair contractors know how to do these days can be summed up in three words: “vinyl replacement windows.” I’ll be getting some of those on my 1925-built colonial revival house about the same time I start wearing sweatpants to shop at Wallmart.

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For comparison, here’s a sample unrestored window from the Crackhouse. Pretty frightning…

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Here’s a recent picture of my soon-to-be studio. The sheetrock has been taped, pulled and primed; ceiling painted; trim installed around windows and doors; and floors sanded down and coated with the first layer of poly.

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