window repair

It took a while to getting all the necessary approvals from the city to begin on my exterior wood refinishing project, but all systems go! My wife and I finally decided on the roycroft brass/rookwood red combo. Of all the wood on the exterior, the rear windows of the dining room and upstairs office are in the worst condition. Time for a little damage control. But first things first. The hideous iron bars that are all over the windows on this house have to come down.

I'm usually timid around power tools, but I bit the bullet and bought a mini-grinder and got to work. The first day I tried this, I grinded through a section of the bar completely. After two hours I only got to removing one of the six points the bar's attached to. I was a little frustrated and was thinking of just giving in and calling the experts, but my bro-in-law suggested going after the bolts themselves. They were locked in place by a bit of tack-welding, but were pretty much drilled directly into the wood. According to him it shouldn't be too hard to unscrew the bolts after grinding off the weld. Lo and behold it worked.. After I unscrewed all the bolts I had to cut through a layer of silicone holding the thing to the wood. An annoying speed bump, but not too big a deal. One down, two to go before I can get started on repairing and refinishing. :)

As you can see, these windows need A LOT of love.