Windows

With all of the talk in my previous post about house colors and window trim colors, I figured it was time to show you how Rosie's windows are coming along.

Rosie's windows are a great project for working on in the evenings after work. The pieces are small, take up very little room and can be worked on one at a time, so they make a great mini project when my brain is tired or I don't have time or energy to pull out tons of supplies. What I didn't realize, however, is that Rosie's windows are a major project overall.

The original owner had primed most of the windows and I think they were put together before the paint was completely dry because in attempting to remove the window panes from the frames (which you are supposed to be able to do with working windows), the majority of the windows broke apart - and not in one or two pieces either - many of the frames broke into 4 pieces, and that doesn't include the window pane frames (2 per window)! There are over 20 windows in this house, and having so many pieces that would need to be sanded & glued back together (something I'm not necessarily very good at) seemed like a very daunting task.

Some of the partially repaired windows

 
In addition to the window parts, there are window headers and window sills for most of the windows that will need to be painted as well:

Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I could get them all put back together, at least not well enough to be happy with their appearance. And let's be honest here, if this is going to be my "forever" house, then I'm not aiming for "okay" I'm shooting for damn-near perfect! So for a little while I was unsure of whether or not I would continue working on the house - more of my "all or nothing" attitude that I'm constantly having to work on...

What I ended up doing is working one step at a time - doing each small step and focusing just on that little step, not concentrating on the big overwhelming picture. And although it has taken me weeks to get to this point, I am thrilled to report that the windows are coming along nicely. I can indeed glue window frames back together - sometimes I have to redo them because they aren't glued straight, and sometimes I have to use a little spackle to fill in tiny gaps - but with enough sanding and painting (3 light coats of paint on both sides of the frames and both sides of the window panes)these windows are starting to look pretty nice. Not perfect mind you, but damn-near!