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Window of Opportunity and Sunday Sneak Peek

Hey there! Did you have a good weekend? Can you believe summer is almost over? The year is just flying by! It’s apple cider doughnut, pumpkin and turkey dinner season. How do you prepare your home for Fall? For me, as soon as the days start getting shorter I turn my attention away from my garden and start focusing on the inside of my house. Yup, my nesting instinct kicks in strong! I already picked up a new area rug for my dining room from Target. It sort of has a vintage modern look dontcha think? Prepping the house to feel cozy and warm for winter’s hibernation has begun! I also have list of furniture projects I want to build this Fall/Winter, but before I start any of that, I have to finish the bathroom window.

Here’s the update of the bathroom window restoration challenges… As mentioned last week in the Window Pains post, I discovered a huge bow in the wall that made installing the interior trim impossible. After plotting and scheming for a few days I developed a solution and it was time to put the plan in motion.

The “stop” material I milled was a thickness of 1/2″. Need a window part name refresher? Here’s a window diagram from Old House Journal to help you out.

Old House Jounal window diagram

The stop was made correctly. It should have been 1/2″ thick, equal to the thickness of the drywall, which would have made it flush with the face of the drywall. In my case, because of the bow in the wall, the drywall was proud of the stop. Which means when I tried to attach the trim, there was a huge gap between the trim and the stop. What solution did I come up with? Increase the thickness of the stop.

I removed the 1/2″ stop and installed new stop that was 3/4″ thick. Now when the trim was installed, it sat flush against the stop. So now I could install the trim and call it a day, right? No, not quite.

The other issue is when I installed my new window frame, it was just slightly to the left of where the old frame was.  If I was installing new trim it wouldn’t have been an issue, but I really wanted to reuse the trim Leslie faux painted to look like marble. The faux marble was cool and matched the rest of the trim in the bathroom. The problem was now the right rosette was too narrow. I needed to add on to it AND faux paint it to match Leslie’s handy work. Yup, I had a full fledged craft project on my hands.

bathroom trim sos

I started by gluing a piece of mahogany to the rosette. Once it was dry, I primed it, added a base coat and started sponging on layers of paint in an effort to match the marble. I’m pretty sure this is NOT how Leslie did it. I’m sure she was looking down on me and saying “nice effort!” I know it’s not perfect, but it’s really close and the patched side will go in the corner, so I don’t think anyone will notice.

rosette cut sos
rosette repair sos

rosette first coat sos

rosette marbelized sos

While all of the window trim was off, I thought now was the perfect opportunity to give it some extra protection. Just a couple coats of poly to preserve Leslie’s hard work. To be honest, I’m not a poly fan, but I thought it was the best option for this project. I went with Minwax Polycrylic. Leslie was always a fan of oil based products, but for some reason I felt like the marble was coated with a water based poly. Why? Honestly I have no idea. It was just a feeling. Maybe Leslie was sending me a message from the great beyond. Plus I knew if it was originally coated with water based and I topped it with oil, it wouldn’t stick. But if it was originally topped with water or oil based poly, I could top it with water based without any issues.

Without reading the directions (who reads the directions anyway?!) I started by scuffing up the old finish with steel wool. Afterwards, I thought I should take a quick look at the directions where it said DO NOT USE STEEL WOOL! The directions recommended 220 sandpaper which I knew would sand right through the faux paint technique. Steel wool was the only option. I dipped my paintbrush in the poly and hoped for the best. After two hours it was time for more sandpaper steel wool and another coat.

window trim poly

In between the coats of poly drying I worked on patching the wall around the window. I also primed and painted the stop pieces. After the paint and final coat of poly was dry it was time to start installing the trim. The trim required just a few fine tuning cuts to go back together properly. I hate to say it, but I actually think the trim fits together better now than it did originally! It was a lot of work, but worth the effort.

window no trim sos

window interior trim installed sos

Is it done? Not yet. Inside there is some more patching to do on the wall, install one final piece of trim below the apron and prime/paint the wall patches. Outside I have to touch up the stain on the siding. I also have to build a new screen and storm window because the size of the window opening increased from the original. Just a few nit picky things I should be able to easily complete before the snow flies.


Sunday Sneak Peek

I think next week we’ll get back to building and sharing a new plan. That’s my goal anyway! Here’s the sneak peek… any ideas what it might be?

dgsketch

Have a good week!

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