Building a Storm Window the old-fashioned way

In addition to replacing original wood porch columns with faux wrought iron, the other architectural bastardization that was common in the 1960's was to remove original double-hung windows and replace them with a "picture window". The Bay View Bungalow unfortunately fell victim to this trend in the name of "modernization".

What we are left with, is an expanse of glass on the front of the house that looks very out of scale with the two original windows that flank it. (this would have originally been a bank of four matching leaded glass windows; the two in the center were removed and replaced with one window). The icing on the cake is the Craptastic aluminum storm window that was installed over it.

picture window with aluminum storm

Since recreating and installing the missing windows was out of the budget, our solution was to build a traditional wood storm window to match those on the original windows and break up the huge expanse of glass by incorporating divided lites (individual panes) to give it a period-correct look. This would at least create the illusion that the larger, center window was an original feature.

In order to really "sell" the illusion, we built the new storm window in exactly the same way it would have been built in 1930; meaning we built it to last, with mortise and tenon joinery (alright - and, yes, a few lap-joints), real, rather than applied, muntins (window "dividers"), and glass held in place with glazing points and sealed with traditional glazing compound.

Rather than bore you with the whole process, I will instead point to this person's blog post that I used as a guide in creating our window. Below are a few highlights from our window build.

open mortise-and-tenon joint

muntins before being glued in place

gluing everything up

chiseling out the corners of the window pane channels

   

Kirby and the finished frame

priming the frame

glazing the panes

finished window installed

We are thrilled with the results! In the spring we'll take the window down and paint the glazing compound to match. (It will take quite a long time for the putty to cure - and can't be painted before then)