A new view from the Window

The view from the Windows on Wentworth has suddenly become a lot clearer. As part of our upgrade of porches, we also decided to upgrade our windows. This old house's windows have been in place for 114 years. They are large double hung wooden single pane windows, many of which had broken ropes on their counter weights. These last few years I just hadn't gotten around to replacing those ropes, and consequently many of them required Herculean efforts to raise them and then a prop to hold them up. We did have aluminum storm windows on the outside, but over the years some of them have also separated at the corners and become leaky or even not usable.

In the winter on a windy day, we usually had a nice cool breeze blowing in when sitting by a window. The other problem is that since the aluminum storm window frames were attached to the house by wood screws, I never took them off when I repainted the house, and thus the outsides of these old wooden windows were looking absolutely terrible. So the windows are being replaced, all of them except for the ones with stained glass in them.

These old windows were heavy and consequently required large counter weights and pulleys to allow you to raise and lower them without straining yourself.

As they take out these old iron counter weights, they reflect a technology that is as old as the buggy whip and about as useful today. I'll probably save some of these counterweights, just to have them, and who knows, I may actually think of a new application for them. Consider it the greening of double hung counter weights.

I must admit, although they were drafty, I really did like these old windows with their unique locks and decorative shoulders. You just can't get windows with that kind of character in something that is energy efficient, at least without paying an arm and a leg for them. So they will be going away with both a certain amount of sadness and a certain amount of relief.

So the Window on Wentworth will have a new look, one that will be displayed in a future post. Because in addition to the construction and the windows, the outside of the house is now being painted. The white that it has been since I bought it 22+ years ago will be covered with a new color, but you will have to wait until the job is completed to see it.