We’ve been busy!

The biggest thing to happen over the last several months is that we moved into a new location. Thanks to the Northern Maine Development Coalition, we now own our own space in the City of Eastport! It took some time to get situated but we are set-up and ready to roll on window projects.

We wrapped up a number of projects too. Here is a before and after of four windows at the GAR building, owned by the Tides Institute. What an honor to restore these, and, oh what a project. Many of the rails needed to be replaced, stops needed to be made and so many dutchman repairs and Abatron Epoxy was used. Thanks to our friend Erik at Squire Millwork for Milling up the replacement parts! We’re thrilled with how these turned out.

Before:

After:

This one takes a bit of explaining. The clients have a gorgeous second empire home with a mansard roof and most of their original windows. We have been restoring all of them with this one exception. If you were to look in this window from the outside you would see the back of their kitchen cabinets and, obviously, it was a bit awkward from the inside.

What they decided to do was to keep the trim and dimension of the upper portion of the window opening and remove the lower portion of the opening - raising the sill to a spot comfortably above their kitchen counter. In place of the old windows, they had us install a Queen Anne window that matched the style of the original windows with the profiles and general design. It solved a design issue and brought some color and excitement to the house. Another contractor will be doing the finishing touches and installing clapboard under the new window. The whole house will be getting a new paint scheme which will make the white sash make more sense with the palette. Thanks again to Squire Millwork in Machias, ME for the constructing the sash!

Before:

After (and progress photos)

Windows, windows, windows!

We have recently completed restoration on single hung windows, double hung windows, and some storms which utilize the SRS hardware stays that we love so much.

First up, we have double hung windows that were attacked over the years by so much caulk. Every bit of these windows was slathered in it and now they’ve been freed to be functional and beautiful. The storms for these are now in the shop getting the necessary restoration they need.

Before:

Process photos and one after photo are below. The antique hardware will definitely be used but, since one of the sash locks was missing, this room is waiting for some replicas to arrive so the windows will all match. We added spring bronze weatherstripping at the jamb, adhesive back pile at the meeting rail, silicone bulb weatherstripping at top and bottom, and used silicon bronze screws on the stops - a favorite approach of ours.

Next up is a set of single hung windows that no longer fit in the jamb due to house settling. Here in Eastport, there is no such thing as a level surface so sash modification is sometimes necessary. A slight angle cut at the top of the top sash with a track saw was all it took. You’ll see we, again, used a little bit of everything on these windows and actually remembered to take pictures:

• Silicone bulb weatherstripping - at bottom of lower sash

• Spring bronze weatherstripping - at jamb

• Adhesive backed pile weatherstripping - at meeting rail

• Spring bolts

• Silicon bronze screws on the stops

These storms were brutalized by the use of every gadget available over the years. Staples and nails held on felt weatherstripping, holes were bored through the stiles for hardware, and Maine weather did its thing. Now they are restored, using the galvanized hardware at the top and sensible, functional, and beautiful “storm window stays” from SRS hardware hold them shut and open them up from inside. These took a lot of abatron and some simple carpentry to get them back to their original beauty.

Some completed projects!

The last few months have been busy but we have some nice photos of finished projects to share.

The new Eastport Ice Cream Shop, called Beau’s Creamery, needed to have the double Victorian door and transom window restored. The doors were in especially bad shape since the original craftsman didn’t feel the need to pin the tenons, leaving the door to gradually slope and get planed down over the 100+ years since installation. Either way, here’s a before and after and you should definitely get down there and try the ginger ice cream - wow.

What may be our favorite type of window to work on is the Queen Anne style with stained glass. *FYI We don’t do leaded glass* This is from one of the most beautiful and well-maintained homes in downtown Eastport and it was a privilege to be able to make it beautiful again.

Our First Project and More

We’re well into our first project! 18 Windows from the enclosed porch of a cute cottage overlooking a lake in Perry, ME are in process. The windows pre-date the cottage - actually storm windows taken from another house - and have beautiful wavy glass. Below you can see the stages the first three windows have completed. We’ve begun finish painting and will post pictures when they’re done.

1. The before photo

2. Glass, paint, and glazing were removed and sash sanded. After epoxy repairs and tightening up some loose joints, a 50/50 mix of Linseed Oil and Turpentine was applied to the exterior of the sash

3. Glass was cleaned and kept labeled. Sashes primed.

4. Glass bedded in fresh glaze and pinned in place, exterior glazed

We’re officially a member of the Window Preservation Alliance and they sent me a t-shirt! They do wonderful work advocating for preservation by educating, encouraging, and organizing around the concept that restoring old windows is a good idea.

And this has nothing to do with windows but, wow, Eastport, ME is full of breathtaking views and we’re so happy to be here.

Goodbye Buffalo, NY; Hello Eastport, ME

After 5 years of visiting Eastport, I am officially a resident. My partner and I bought a cute little Greek Revival house with many historic features intact - including two windows! I have been working on getting the business officially launched and have a space found, ad placed in the Quoddy Tides and the formal business set-up is well underway. I hope to be up and running in February so feel free to contact me if you’d like some windows restored.

I have been hearing that I should post some photos of window restoration that I have done or been apart of in the past, so here I go:

Here is a good example of a full window restoration at our former home on the West Side of Buffalo. The house is an early example of an American Foursquare and the windows are a typical one over one with a rope and pulley system.

The storm windows were triple track windows that were in bad shape so we replaced them with custom wood storm windows. They are made of very durable sapele wood and the design is based on the few original storm windows we had. They were built and installed by Northwood Historic Restoration (who I later worked for). You can see that the storm is pushed open by Storm Window Stays from SRS Hardware which, I personally love. They allow you to push the storm open from bottom when you’d like a nice breeze and pull them back in and secure them when you’re done from the inside - never needing to scale the outside of your home.

The sash themselves were mostly in good shape but the location on the stairs seemed dangerous for standard glass so I replaced it with laminated glass. New window weights were installed to accommodate the change in weight caused by the change in glass. The finish was restored by using shellac with a tint that matched the shellac based finish of the trim around them.

The jamb was scraped, primed and painted and new sash cord was installed.

Here is an example of one of my favorite things to experience with window restoration. This sash lock was found on a window that was thrown into the garbage. It was smothered in many years of paint but after a little time in a crockpot and a trip on a wire wheel, it came out being absolutely beautiful.

The above two photos are from some attic windows I restored in Buffalo, NY. They were in pretty rough shape. The above process photo shows “re-pinning” the sash at it’s joint. The discoloration to the wood and the amount of work that was needed to get them going again would lead many to think they were “too far gone.” The second photo is of the windows all completed and re-installed. They’re beautiful and such a significant part of the home’s architecture. Most windows aren’t “too far gone” and they’re very much worth the time to restore.