sash rail?

For lack of a better term I'm calling the aluminum trim on the side of the window casing, sash rail. One of the windows in the guest bedroom is missing one on the lower sash. With a little wind the sash has an annoying habit of slapping back and forth without the rail in place. I really need to get the missing one replaced, problem is I don't know where to find one. I made a pass through lowes and didn't find anything similar, not that I was surprised. I might be able to find something at one of the old school hardware stores, not sure. Anyone know where I could find something like this online?

window restoration pt6

Next step is a little weatherstripping. I've used acrylic/silicone blends before and have been disapointed when they eventually crack. This is especially prone to happen here with the wild fluctuations we can have in climate. Most of the year is bone dry with very little humidity if any, then the monsoon season comes around. Before you know it doors and windows don't work very well for a month or two. So I decided to not cheap out and bought a tube of 100% silicone caulk/sealer. I'm concentrating on the edge where the wood framing meets the brick. Apply and smooth it out with your finger. Simple. We're getting close baby..

UPDATE: From experience, it can be a pain to work with silicone caulk before painting, the paint doesn't adhere well if you're a little sloppy. I've actually gone back to using a paintable caulk for this step (like AlexPlus) just cause I'm a little messy. If you do use silicone, it might be better to do this after step8.

berm be gone

Leveling out this patch of dirt brought back bad memories of the big dig, but otherwise not too bad. You may remember my leaky basement (which was the whole point of doing this) -- don't think I would have ever bothered otherwise. I'm glad the hard part is finally over. Now I can start making it purty again. First thing is to pick up a load of flagstone. Trust me, it's going to look sweet. :)

pic of the day

Bassett tower, ca. 1930

stripping paint

I'm pushing forward with the guest room restoration. As you might remember, there are multiple things to do in here, but step one will be restoring the window sashes and installing new casing. I have the lumber sitting off to the side, but need to get all the paint of these first. There's some nice pine under that paint, which luckily had only one coat of latex. At first I tried heatgunning it off but that was akin to killing a roach with a sledgehammer. Way too easy to singe the wood. I opted for the more gentle method of using a chemical stripper. I've used citristrip in the past and wasn't very happy with it -- very messy to use. I really like PeelAway and gave each of my windows a coat each. As you can see I still have some more to clean up. So my question is, is there an easier way to strip latex paint? I think one more application should do the trick, so I'll probably just do that. I also want to pull them down and fix the glazing before getting my guy to trim them out. I know I'm going to be tempted to scrape/sand/paint the trim on the exterior while I'm at it. I wish there was more time in the day..