Our Old House Project - Replacing Storm Windows

Another Our Old House Project here....  this time, Storm Windows!

Our house has 27 windows, not counting the 13 on the front porch. If I include those, that makes 40 windows in all!

The interior windows are lovely old wooden ones, with the patina and varnish of 103+ years gracing the woodwork.  We will never ever change those. The wood trim adds to the theme of the crown mouldings and high mop boards of our home.

I love these old turn locks

and the handle lifts 

on the old interior windows.  

The previous owners had replaced some of the exterior storms over the last few years after a big hail storm, I imagine due to damage.  So all of the storm windows were replaced except for six windows.  (I guess because they hadn't been damaged by the hail?)

Two windows on the upper front of the house (our master bedroom) along with 2 along the south (the guest bedroom) and 2 along the north (my sewing room) ... Those six are still ugly old silver aluminum, with sticking latches and worn tracks that let the storm windows rattle with the wind.

See the two up high on the second story? 

(Plus, I think that they look ugly)

Time to make a change.

A few weeks ago, after careful measuring, we ordered 6 new exterior storm replacement windows. They had to be made to the exact size so they needed to be special ordered. These new ones will be WHITE and will match the other exterior storm windows and trim on the rest of the house. 

We got an email on Tuesday while we were camping that the windows were in. You know Steve, we had to rush home and go get those windows. Mister Zoom Zoom.

Here are two of the new storms that he carried up to the bedroom to get started on replacing the old ones. It was my job to wash them up in advance, and also wash the interior windows before he began the installation.

We are fortunate that the two front bedroom ones are right over the roof of the front porch. All that my Mr. Zoom Zoom has to do is step out onto the roof to work on these windows. 

He removed the old storm frames and started scraping away at any of the flaking paint or old glazing caulk between the two windows. Of course it ended up all over the brown roof shingles. Our neighbors must have thought we were nuts to see my husband with the Shop-Vac, sucking up all the paint chips and leftover window glazing pieces from our roof!

He fixed the missing pieces of glazing on the outside surface of the interior windows, and washed them to remove all the accumulated dirt WOW... we can see through them now!

We dry fitted the new storms into place to be sure they were exactly the right size. Then he put a very generous bead of silicone caulk all of the way around to attach it on the sides and the top. The bottom edge has a slider spacer to allow weeping in case of rain buildup between the interior and exterior windows.  He then screwed the frames down into place with the long white screws to secure them to the window casings.

We slid in the new windows and screens with a nice firm click click click,
and they don't rattle like the old ones did!

Once he got the windows all screwed into place, now it was my job to clean up the space in between the interior and exterior windows. They sure were grubby, take a look at these "BEFORE" pics:

After scraping, I added a fresh coat of primer 

and then white paint 

--- it really made a difference!

Here we are,

 nice new fresh storm windows and screens in our bedroom. 

Two windows down, 

four more to go.

And I think it looks a lot better, don't you?

We didn't get around to doing the other four windows over the weekend, because our littlest granddaughter Claire was here to spend Saturday and Sunday with us.

Along with her two doggies, Biscuit and Ewok.

It sure was a lot of fun having our youngest grandchild to visit and give her some special one-on-one time. When we have all 7 grandkids visiting, it's kind of hectic and the babies can't be down on the floor with so many others running around.

We even went out to the motorhome to "help" Grandfadddah install the remote panel unit for the inverter that we replaced the other day.  While he put in the wires and screws, this silly little girl was getting her toes tickled by my lint brush!  She kept putting her toes up for more more more .....

 

She is almost 10 months old now, and had a preemie start in life.  I am happy to say all is going good and she is thriving.  I love watching her discover things and using her little fingers to explore with great small motor dexterity.  Here she is clicking her tiny teeth in the metal edge of the little toy Strawberry Shortcake dishes.

I really feel she is developing her MOTHER'S personality! 

Her parents came about 3 p.m. to pick her up to take her home. It was fun for us to have her here, but tiring as well. With both of us getting close to sixty years old, these Wee Ones really take a lot of energy.

We did manage a nice walk with the dogs around a couple of blocks, before coming home and crashing on the couch for the rest of the evening.

Monday, today, is a new day. Steve is off driving his old fart party bus this morning, but only until noon or 1 p.m. Knowing him, since the temperatures are in the mid-70s today, we will be upstairs and attacking the windows in the sewing room next.  I already went up and cleared away anything that is underneath the windows and moved my big quilting frame table to make room.

When Mr Zoom Zoom starts a project,

 get out of his way, 

clear the decks, 

and be ready to assist.