Here's what I do for a living (although I normally charge money for it). I started this business a couple of years ago, quite by accident, and it is growing every day and has gotten to the point that I need to "go big, or stay at home". Employees are in my immediate future. I named the venture "Double Hung" to identify what I specialize in restoring and to raise the eyebrows of the many women that I come into contact with because the moniker is, well... intriguing.
Unless you are involved pretty deeply in historic preservation you wouldn't know about a recent declaration of war that has been issued by a guy in Iowa who does what I do - albeit on a larger scale. The looming conflict is between preservationists and the construction material replacement industry.
One of the most defining features of any historic structure are it's windows. If you look at an old house from the street and sense that something just doesn't look right - the windows have probably been replaced. The scale, muntin arrangement and materials of windows were given the highest priority when old houses were designed and constructed. Typically milled of original growth yellow pine, old windows cannot be duplicated for any amount of money because that lumber is long gone. Even the old hand rolled "wavy glass" that was used in original windows is almost irreplacable and currently sells for $90 per square foot.
The windows in my house are closing in on being 100 years old and they are just now reaching adolescence. Compare that to today's "vinyl clad" windows with a servicible life of around 20 years (if you're lucky) and you get an idea of the "lies" that are referred to in the above declaration.
Old double hung windows are pretty simple machines with their weights, rope and pulleys. If they have been neglected for many years it takes some time to get them working properly, but it can be done with a little patience and few tools. After I repair an old window and make it weather-tight it is "good-to-go" for 50 years or so before another guy comes along and has to give them another shot of maintenance. But because the replacement industry is so huge, (just check any newspaper's advertising), folks take the route of "out with the old, in with the new". Replacement window companies unceremoniously throw the original irreplacable windows in the land fill.
The "How To" clinic I am giving next week that I mention above is a preemptive skirmish in the "war" that most of you will never know about. The only inkling you might have as to the war's progress is when you look at a historic home from some neighborhood's sidewalk. If you sense that something just isn't right about the building, you will know that I, and others like me, have lost another battle.
8:20:37 AM 
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