the Light at the end of the tunnel

It's hard to appreciate how long it takes two individuals to remove, repair, and rehang every window in a large Victorian home!  In addition, none of the windows had storms, so Rob made traditional wood storm windows for all but those windows with curved convex glass.  By the start of 2015 we were ready to tackle the less ordinary windows.

We started by making the storm windows for the two arched windows in the master bedroom.  Rob built a form with the correct radius on a large piece of plywood.  

We used fairly thin, narrow wood strips of various lengths that would easily bend to the proper radius.  Wood glue was applied to the strips and the arch began to take shape as each subsequent layer was applied.

We had to work very quickly, making sure that each strip ended in a different place.  A liberal application of wax around the form prior to the start of gluing insured that the wood glue wouldn't adhere to the forms.

Once the lamination was fully dried, it was sanded thoroughly.  The rails were added and routed to accept glass.  We opted to fix the glass permanently in the upper half of the storm because the arched-top windows do not open fully, making it nearly impossible to swap out the glass insert for a screen.

One of the last windows we repaired was a small, round decorative window in the second floor hallway.  Much of the interior trim--which is what holds the window frame in place--was missing.  Rob made new trim from mahogany in the same profile as the old.