Solarium windows making a comeback!

While I’ve pretty much done my own thing with this house, I am still trying to be sensitive to its history. Especially on the exterior and the larger, more expensive and/or hard-to-change areas of the house. I use the old family pictures as a reference more often than not, and I think they have been hugely helpful in giving my project(s) a direction. Especially when it comes to the front of the house.

While my landscaping may never look this good, I hope the house will!

As you can see, the front of the house used to be much more ornate than it currently is. However, over time, the roof over the enclosed porch/solarium proved to be too leaky and too big a headache to maintain anymore and the current sloped roof was put in place sometime in the 1970’s.

We'll be replacing the windows in the solarium/greenhouse and rebuilding the latticework around the front door to match the older pictures. I will also have the small window put back above the bay window and am trying to find a design for the gingerbread in the gable.

With all kinds of new roofing products out there, I would LOVE to be able to replace the pitched roof over the porch with a flat roof and rebuild the decorative rail. That will be a project for another..year.

The project we’ll be working on soon enough is residing the front of the house and replacing the windows in that area.

Our siding project last year lasted as long as the weather would allow – we hung siding (in sweatshirts and hats) until November 9^th when the snow started to fly. At that point, I was out of money and siding to hang so it seemed like a natural stopping point.

With the other big projects finished, and the inside of the house becoming more and more finished every day, we’re turning – once again – to siding.

Completely by chance, I was able to purchase seven new windows for the solarium at a deep discount. The windows are double hung, aluminum-clad Pella brand and are absolutely outside my price range if not for the restocking sale offered by the manufacturer (Pella Corporation’s headquarters happen to be 15 miles away..in Pella: http://www.pella.org/)

Playing in the big leagues now!
http://www.pella.com/home/default.aspx

So, I lucked out yet again J Now I’ll have all the windows back in their original placement – I’m even ordering muntins to match the pattern of the old style from my pictures so I can have the best of both worlds: the charm of the old style, with all the efficiency and convenience of new products!