Den Do-over

When we viewed our new/old house for the first time, back in January, we knew immediately that this house would work for us! The previous homeowners were using two of the rooms on the first floor differently than I thought would work best, however.

This is how the previous owners used our family room - as a dining room with this little extra space for a chair.



We swapped the dining room and the family room - this put the family room out of sight from the front door and front windows and next to the kitchen.

See the kitchen pantry cabinet? In addition to everything else I knew I wanted to remove that.

But, when we started the demolition of the old master bathroom it became apparent that there were both plumbing and electrical problems that impacted the room below ... our new family room. Yep! The very room that we spend the most time in!



So our new family room looked like this for about six weeks (we still had the living room to use but it was an obstacle course like the rest of the house).

When we were finally able to begin using the new family room this is all we had. The couch from our old living room was being reupholstered, that big chair in the corner was way too big, and we had a tall cabinet that was at the wood working shop.

We had the top of that cabinet (right side) retro-fit to convert from an old TV cabinet to shelving for extended kitchen use.

So, the painters came and painted on the weekend so we could get moved in. I picked Sherwin Williams Celery for the wall color. Love it!

Then the sofa was delivered.

The fabric had been put on inside-out.

No, I'm not kidding!

Back to the upholstery shop we go ...

In the meantime, the top of the cabinet was delivered and installed. It is amazing! We got the sofa back a couple weeks later - no charge and delivered. We bought a new chair and the pieces started to fit together in my mind. I had tried this painting over the sofa and I really liked the colors with the rug.

 

The family room was the last room to get the new window sashes and there are four windows in this room. On that day, Nate had completely removed the double windows (you can't see them in this photo) and he went to the garage to get the sashes and ...

 

No sashes that fit the double window! Keep in mind these sashes were all custom made. And, they took more than four weeks to receive.

 

No, I'm not kidding!

 

I took my son to get some lunch, determined not to stress. I didn't have the heart to take a picture, Nate was so upset. When we got home all the workers had gone home and we had a boarded up hole - no a boarded up double-hole in the family room.

 

No, I'm not kidding!

 

A couple days later, contractor Chris and Nate (the guy who does everything) showed up all smiles. They had decided to rebuild the old window openings to fit the new window sashes that we already had. This would make all four windows in the family room the same size. Great idea! Crisis averted!

 

Here is the plan for future interior design: That caramel colored chair will be moved to the living room. We just bought that cool hanging light but it is in the wrong place. That little black table is going to be replaced with a larger white kitchen table and the light will be moved to hang over the table.

Now that the furniture is all neutral I thought we could use a pop of unexpected color. So ... I added the kids portraits over the TV.

 

Oooooh! Fuchsia! Where can I add some more???

The Question of Windows

Row of houses on our street



Windows are a contentious topic with old house owners. Let's face it, a big part of the charm of an old house is its windows.

So, the purists say keep the old, originial windows, use storm windows if you have to, for efficiency.  Keep the beautiful moldings, the wavy glass, and the far superior buidling materials. Originals are the only way to preserve the historical worth of your home.

Our original windows from the 3rd floor dormers.

The other extreme are the new-tech-is-best folks. These guys say replace those old things for heaven's sake, this is the 21st century.  Add energy efficiency, noise reduction, ease of use, and best of all never have to paint them!

New vinyl window (not in our neighborhood)

 

Then, as you can imagine there are multiple choices in between.

When I first talked to Contractor Chris I wanted to keep all the old windows, repair the old sash cords and weights and add new, prettier, storm windows. Immediately Chris said - in his opinion the storm windows are what makes the windows look bad - why would we want to pay for new ones? And, new storm windows would cost as much as new windows. Ouch!

Windows when we bought the house. The third floor windows would not open and you could hardly see through them. All the other windows including these on the second floor have aluminum storm windows attached.

But, I really want to keep the original look of the windows.  I keep saying to myself, "these windows have lasted 91 years, I can't be the one to get rid of them. I'm a preservationist!" After much thought and discussion, here is where we ended up:

There is a really cool product made by several window manufacturers that only replaces the sashes of the windows. (Sash windows are the type that have framed portions that move up and down.) So, the original window frame and trim remain. They have to be installed either from the inside or the outside so one set of trim has to be removed and replaced, provided it comes off in tact. And you have a choice of materials; vinyl, aluminum wrapped wood or wood. We chose this option, replacing all the sash windows on our house with new wood sashes but leaving the original trim - definitely not the cheapest choice!

One of  Marvin Windows and Doors' sash replacement options.

Definitely not the most expensive choice either! That would probably be to replace the old windows with new/old sashes with sash cords and whatnot.  My brother and his wife own a 1925 Craftsman in Portland, Oregon.  They have chosen this, as-original-as-possible route, replacing one window at a time and their most expensive to date was about $2000! Yikes!

My brother and sister-in-law's house

So, we're in the mid-ground.  We are getting wood windows with the original wood trim unobstructed by ugly storm windows. But we're also getting thermal panes, easy up and down, tilt out for  cleaning.  Yes, we will have to paint them but they will look like the originals.  Can't wait to show them to you when they are all finished ...

One of the new windows in the bathroom

We are making a few exceptions where the windows are not sash windows or where they are completely new due to the remodeling. In the master bath we have all new sash windows and they are wood and they are wonderful! On the third floor we have all new windows that are the awning type (they crank open from the bottom). We also chose to keep the grids, or muntins, in those because that is what the house originally had (windows with six lights separated by muntins). They are so beautiful and so clean! There are two other windows on the first floor that are also not sash windows and therefore those are getting new wood replacements.

New third floor dormer windows

 

Whew! Trying to do "the right thing" is tough!