Andy Friedl.com

Our old home in Beloit WI was built in 1900 and has had a few slight modifications to the layout.  One that bothered me is one of the two doorways in our foyer was closed off.  Not a big deal but it bugged me. It also made the foyer dark and confining, not very welcoming. The old wallpaper didn’t help either. I had ideas of opening it up for a while but opening it up would take up wall space in our music room beyond. So the idea I came up with is make it a window. Then you get the benefit of openness and not take up the wall space in the music room. I have a habit of rescuing old doors and windows on trash day. If I see an old door or cool old window it has to come home with me. I found this really cool window about eight years ago. it was the upper window of a double hung window that had old wavy glass in it.

First part and the fun part was opening up the wall. Since it was originally a doorway I didn’t have to worry about structural issues. The framing was just to support the drywall so I could cut the studs and install a nailer for the header and sill.

Test fitted the window and it looked good. It unfortunately stayed like this for a few months. This was the easy part trying to trim it out to match the rest of the old window trim was going to be hard. In the picture above you can see the window latch from the old window.

Finally figured out how to trim out the window. It is about 97% correct to the original windows. Most people wouldn’t notice what is off. I found baseboard molding that matched the profile and used other blank stock to trim it out. I had to mill my own sills with a table saw and sandpaper. I wish I had a router to do that. There were many trips to the garage to trim off a 1/16″ check it and trim off a 1/16″ more… Pre-drilled all the nails. Primed filled all cracks with caulk and finish painted. I also had time to strip the wallpaper in the foyer which also received a new light fixture.

The final result worked out nice. From the street you can see the window and with the lights on at night it looks very warm and cozy. Maybe the neighbor that used to own this window will see it reborn with a new life to live on for many more years.