Guest House: Windows

Here is a closeup of one of the old windows in the guest house. Metal frame windows from the 1960s or 1970s, you could hardly see out of them. They had both an interior and storm sash in the same casement, making them nearly impossible to clean. They also didn't open very easily and nor were energy efficient. Oh, and they were very ugly, although I suppose I don't need to mention that. 

The window on the right in this photo is that same window, which is located on the east side of the room. The picture window to the left faces north, towards the house. 

Here is the west side of the room, with the west-facing window to the left and the same north-facing picture window to the right. The east and west sides of the room are duplicates of one another. 

Here is the south end of the room, which includes the kitchen area. The bathroom is the door closest to the front door, on the right. The two doors in the foreground on left and right are both closets. 

As we did in the main house, we taped out many window patterns to try to determine the best design and size for the new windows. At first, we considered two-over-two double-hung windows, but in the end we thought that six-over-six would match the house the best (we used six-over-one double-hung in the house), and provide the most dramatic improvement. 

Here is the taping for the west-facing window. We wanted all of the windows (besides the kitchen) to be the same size and design for consistency. We also wanted to keep within standard sizes as custom dimensions are much more expensive. As you can see, we opted to lengthen the window openings. 

Here is the new east side window, after installation. 

Here is the west side window, which is the exact same window as the east side. 

We also used three of the very same windows to replace the north-facing picture window. 

The kitchen window is different in style and size. Due to space restrictions, a double-hung would not fit in this space, so we opted for a picture window with similarly-sized panes to match the new double-hungs in the rest of the room. 

Here is the west side of the room with the new windows installed, and with new paint on the floors, walls, and ceiling. 

Here is the east side. 

The north-facing picture window is now a series of three six-over-six double-hung windows (the same size and style as the two side windows). Although they are three separate windows, they were delivered as one unit. This made installation a lot easier and less costly. 

Lastly, here is the kitchen window.  This window was scooted to the left a bit so that we could replace the old window with something larger. 

Buying new windows for your house is a lot of work. 

We worked with two window dealers but neither of them really took the time to verify that the windows would all match in style, or that the window panes would come out rectangular (cottage style) rather than square (more bungalow style). 

Classic Sash and Door in Portland was the only window dealership that we encountered who paid attention to these types of details. We are out of their delivery range so we couldn't order our windows from them. Even so, they helped us tremendously. This is the second time that they've helped us as we came to them when deliberating on the windows for the main house as well. 

They are fabulous! 

The windows we used for the guest house are from Marvin's Integrity line. 

Their new Integrity line is almost half the cost of their regular line, without sacrificing quality. 

We used Marvin windows in the main house as well. 

HERE are the after photos from Country Living.