Old houses, amirite?

[dreamshark]

When we had that cold snap last week I was appalled to discover than even a temperature of 5F ABOVE ZERO rendered our heating plant unable to get the house temperature above 66 degrees. I decided it might be time to overcome our state of denial on the condition of our windows and at least think about doing something about it. The problem is that about half the windows in this enormous house are the old-fashioned kind with a set of wooden storm windows and another set of screens that must be swapped twice a year, and every year there seem to be fewer storms available. So yesterday when the temperature temporarily rose above freezing I spearheaded an expedition into the attic of the garage to see what we could find. 

First I swapped the storms onto the kitchen windows. I do that every year, so I knew right where those were. Then we located the wooden frame for the big window at the foot of the stairs. The frame was in good shape and had even been repainted, but it had no glass. That takes a huge piece of glass, so it will have to go to the hardware store for repair. After moving all the things in the way of the buried windows we found 3 basement storms in usable condition. One was easily accessible and repainted so we put that one on. The other two are probably usable but hard to get to, so we let that slide. Oh look!  These must be the storms for the upstairs closet windows! They are in fine shape but it hardly seems worth digging out the 30 foot ladder just to keep the closets from getting cold, so we let those lie. 

Richard admitted that the long horizontal storm that goes over the beautiful but slowly deteriorating stained glass in the dining room had been sitting in the basement for years waiting for him to repaint it. Hell, when we looked closely at the stained glass we found a 1"x3" HOLE right through to the outside where a piece of glass had fallen out years ago and been patched with clear packing tape. That tape was now worn away and wind was whistling through the hole. That can't be good. So we put another piece of clear tape over it, and the next day Richard and Thorin mounted the storm window. Good. 

But the best news is that the two elegant looking but totally impractical paned casement storms for the den that Richard believed had rotted away were NOT rotted at all, just missing a couple of panes of glass! This is great news because there is just no easy fix for the den windows. There is simply no way to replace windows like that with modern  combinations without massive expense and ruining the look of the room, which has windows on 3 sides. Richard is working on those 2 windows right now. Since the missing windows face west, getting storms in place should significantly cut down on the cold air rushing into the house. 

So yesterday was an exhausting but ultimately productive day. True, we only got three storm windows actually in place, but work is in progress on another three. Five if you count the basement windows. Seven if you count the closet windows, but let's face it, we're probably never going to put those back up.

Bonus - the attic of the garage is sort of cleaned up. 

Comments

[maruad]

I remember storm windows from my home when I was growing up. We didn't have a tall ladder so for the second floor windows, someone with strong arms and back would twist and put the storm window out through the open and then, still from the inside, hang the storm and then attach the hooks to the eyelets screwed into the frame. I don't know how we managed when my Dad was in hospital. I have to assume one of my uncles came over to do it.

I do not envy you guys.

[dreamshark]

With the exception of those quirky closet windows, the second floor and attic have combination storms. Fortunately. Your description is hair raising.

[quadong]

I've had that same moment when I have said, wait a moment, that's just a clear open hole through to the outside! In my case, with a much less complicated overall situation, but still.