Genesis 1:3

At grandma’s house, the living room always seemed a little dark. My mom and uncles thought that they remembered having large casement windows on either side of the fireplace growing up. Blaine and I checked Stillwell’s house plan, and saw that windows were indeed meant to be flanking the fireplace in the living room.

Blue arrows point to windows flanking fireplace
Source

Going through old photos we found evidence that they were present when grandma bought the house in the early 60s.

Grandma Hannah with her boys, notice the original windows draped in shades, 1960s

So, at some point in the last 50 years, the windows there were covered up.

Wood paneling covers original windows
Photo from 2015 after the purchase

The room was begging for them to be put back!

Outside, non-original siding covers original windows flanking fireplace

We definitely had to put in some more windows to help brighten up the room again.

Throughout the rest of the house we took a similar approach, planning to install as many windows as possible, but also accommodating the new layout.

Most of the windows in the house had been “improved” over the years, only leaving a handful of the original wavy glass, 6-over-1, double hung, counter weight with pulley type remaining.

Behind the cute little kids, beyond the screened porch, I spy an original window in the den

Here are the originals again in 2015

Although the 6-over-1 design was certainly pretty, we were even more drawn to the 3-over-1 style, which was also a common feature found in early 20th century craftsman style homes.

They have great customer service, btw

Yes, we committed another ‘mistake’ of historic homeowners… 🙂

But it was for good reason! The majority of the windows in the house were piecemealed and nothing matched anymore. There were only a few original windows remaining, and upon their removal we kept them for future projects.

We ordered 30 some-odd new windows and got to work. Most of the actual work was spent framing, leveling, and prepping the voids to take the windows. Nothing was level.

Our first new window

One down, lots to go…

Living room restored 🙂

East side of living room

My sister and dad helping in the living room with bellies full of Easter dinner

My husband and Chris double teamed the exterior

Living room windows installed

Moving on to the dining room…

All smiles

Neighbor’s pond is just beyond our dining room windows

I’m looking forward to watching these guys swim by again someday soon. 🙂

Blaine’s photo of the family just beyond the dining room windows

Dining room and living room windows done

The new kitchen sink will be placed in front of a window. We framed it up and before installing the window, we stood there to look out (pretending to wash dishes :). I’m glad we did because we decided it was way too small! A larger window was ordered and we tweaked the kitchen layout to fit it.