windows and attic fans

On Tuesday, we decided to start working on two things, the windows in the master and the attic fan.

First we tackled the attic fan. These were installed as an alternative to air conditioning, as it is a much cheaper alternative to air-conditioning. Some people still use them today for not only the cheaper costs, but also as a green alternative to air conditioning. It works by sucking the hot air out of the house and into the attic. From the attic, the theory is that the hot air will leave through the soffits and vents. Soooo, why not keep it? Here is a picture of ours.

There are three main reasons I want it gone. 

1) I'm not big on the aesthetics of it. It may be vain, but I don't like the industrial feel of it. 

2) If you can see the dark black spots, that is ALL DUST. Dust, dust, dust. I am not the world's biggest fan (haha) of dusting, and that is for sure a dust collection pit. No thanks.

3) It is LOUD!!! I have only heard it once, when our realtor Tyler opened it during our first viewing. That was enough for me. The thing is loud. It has probably gotten louder with age, but I just cannot imagine having that noise running for the majority of the summer.

So we took it out from up above in the attic. Well, Leo and my Dad did while I took pictures :)

View of the fan from the attic. Even more dust. 

It was attached with pieces of 2 by 4 and screws. They just split the wood until it was no longer attached.

And its out.

This is the cavity and the vent opening that you see from the second floor.

One thing is for sure, this project is definitely testing my limited ability with lighting on my camera.

So the fan itself is out, and the next step will be to take out the vent and drywall/patch in the hole. I will definitely post that when it happens (hopefully soon!).

Next we went to the master bedroom and started taking out the windows. These windows were directly under the hole in the roof of the back of the house. They were damaged by the water that got in when it rained. We are taking them all out, scraping, sanding, and in some instances repairing them.  Some of the pieces have very early stages of wood rot from the moisture. 

We can save them though. I love the original windows. Leo is quickly getting tired of that word and my fascination with it. Original. But the original features are what gives it character! 

So what about energy efficiency? There is an good article about how if you properly restore old windows and add storm windows (which has already been done), the efficiency of old to new windows is almost the same. The author, Sarah Donahue Wolff, states that "Historic windows used in combination with storm windows have been shown to have even better insulating properties than double-pane windows..." Original wins again :)

For now, I am just posting the before pictures and a couple of pictures from the process of taking them out. We have sent some of them to Watson's Screen and Window Repair for broken glass and new glazing, which helps seal in the window. The other ones we will scrape, sand, and repaint ourselves.

This wooden frame was exposed to a lot of moisture from the leaky roof. Now that everything is dry, the paint is drying and peeling off.

Results of my preliminary scrapings before the window was taken out.

You have to take out the trim, which are holding in the windows and gives it a finished edge. We also had to remove the parting stop to get the top windows out. That was the tricky part! We broke all of them except one. They were very brittle from the water damage. These can be replaced.

After you clear the trim (usually you only have to do one side) and the parting stop, you CAREFULLY remove the upper window. If you aren't careful, it could fall out of the frame.

There are a total of five windows on this wall. We took out the three on the left. The only things left in these are the storm windows.

Windows free from the frame. These will have to be scraped, sanded, and painted. The actual glass is still good.

That was a long post again! Hopefully, we will get a lot done this weekend. We are going to try to finish up the attic fan/vent problem, as well as try to figure out this wallpaper dilemma. We are still deciding...to leave or not to leave the wallpaper? I really don't want to leave it. But I also don't want damaged walls like in the side bedroom. But we have to decide this weekend so we can move forward!

-Katie