Having seen what a big difference it has made having some decent new windows, ideally I’d like to have all the old ones replaced throughout the house, bringing them all up to the standard of the extension. But that’s far too expensive to even contemplate doing in one go – the bedrooms and dining room are all dual-aspect (i.e. two windows each) and there’s a very large and rather complex bay window in the living room. That’s an awful lot of windows to replace! I think it’s going to have to be a long-term project, maybe doing one room per year as and when I have saved up the money.
However, I am in the middle of a bit of a blitz of home improvements at the moment, so when I had the builder round a few months ago to quote for fixing the drive, path and roof, I also got him to quote to replace the window in my en-suite bathroom. Now that the kitchen and utility room windows are fixed, this is the next worst one heading up my wish-list. The secondary double glazing failed completely a few years ago and won’t shut at all, so I effectively only have single glazing anyway – not ideal in a steamy bathroom. If I do manage to force it closed, it stays shut for just a few hours at most, before falling open with a loud crash – usually in the middle of the night, making me jump out of my skin! Plus, the window frame itself has swelled and warped over the years so that it’s very difficult to open. When I needed to ventilate the house after having my drain relined, I had to bash the window open with a rolling pin! And bash it again to close it! That is hardly either safe or convenient – though I suppose that if the window is seized shut, it is at least secure!
Again, I made it a condition of the job that they leave the bathroom tiling intact – I can’t afford to replace that. And the window fittings had again to be sized and positioned so that I could unlock and open the window without stretching or standing on a chair. That’s one of the nice things about getting the window hand-made to order – I can have it exactly how I want with no compromises. I took a day off work last week while it was fitted, and they’ve done another neat job. They’ve left the woodwork primed, and when Rob the painter is back here next month he’ll paint it to match the rest of the house. Then that will be the end of this year’s planned renovations and maintenance – anything else will be due to an emergency or something falling off / going horribly wrong!
