Anyone want to comment on my windows?

[skier-hughes]

A lot of our rooms have few/small windows, so we are looking at fitting some new ones.
While Jo is away I've been photoshopping and in readiness for her return and some sort of plan of action, I thought I'd canvas opinon on my thoughts.

I have posted some pictures here - as always -
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/kitchen/kitchenhole.htm

It's quite easy to see what is going where, but some background and info on them may help.
I've also just thought some internal pics may help as well. So, if you want them I'll take some later.

Actually internal north side is shown on this picture
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/kitchen/26-09-07_1709.jpg
The area where the studding is no longer present, under the cement plaster is very bad brickword and will need taking out and redoing, so the idea is to carry along the horizontal beam and put an upright stud wehre it would have been originally and the window will fit in the top half of the wall.

The south side needs some work on the brickwork, in/out as has already been done in part to tie in the section which was bricked up sometime in the past. The new large window would supply some light/ventilation to the bedroom.
The new small window would supply light and ventilation to the new ensuite.

The ensuite would be in this area
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/kitchen/SW-corner-upstairs.jpg
Made up of an oak frame connected to the existing upright seen in the picture.

The window that you can see in that pictre will become a double opening door, leading out onto a balcony.

The house is not listed, so no lbc's to worry about.
Planning permission is required for the balcony.
We've had agreement for adding/changing the windows from the conservation officer and building control were happy with the other windows that we added/changed.

Windows will be wood, as per the ones downstairs on both north/south sides, (Iberian Douglas Fir, as recommended by SPAB) and painted with Holkham paint.

Think I've covered it all.

Graham

 

[biffvernon]

They're very white.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

I'd be interested to know why SPAB recommend douglas fir over, say, european oak. In my opinion the oak is going to be more durable and could well cost the same, if not less.

Mr Biff Vernon to comment, please.

 

[skier-hughes]

They said for our area, age etc that douglas fir would have been the most likely wood used, but that the best area for getting it now is the Iberian area, or was it baltic, can't remember now, I'll have to look out the email as it grows much more slowly so the wood is very dense and long lasting.

 

[skier-hughes]

They're very white.

I wonder how white they'd have looked it I'd used the bright white, which you recommended against :shock:

It looks even whiter now with about 1/4" of nice fresh snow!!

 

[Schoolmarm]

Does your wife know she is plastered all over the net in her slippers? I would be furious. :shock:

 

[joechip]

Oh go on Schoolmarm, show us your slippers. :wink:

Well Skier, you certainly have your work cut out for you. Looking at those photo's makes me feel slightly better about the by comparison small amount of work I need to do on my two downstairs rooms which i'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by. At the same time i'm very envious of all the wonderful features you have uncovered there.

I look forward to following your progress.

 

[biffvernon]

I doubt whether Douglas fir of an Iberian origin is very common.
Go back a while, before Mr Douglas discovered it, and Douglas fir wasn't common anywhere outside its native Canada. I guess it was recommended, not so much because of its traditional use but because it it the nearest thing to the slow grown Baltic pine (Pinus sylvestris, aka Scott's Pine) that was the preferred window timber through much of the 18th and 19th century. Douglas fir and larch are now the best softwoods easily available.

Oak was used extensively through the Medieval period and up to the early 18th century when imported pine became cheaper. There have been revivals in its use, spearheaded by such heroes as William Morris and, er, me

I have had a virtually 100% failure rate in trying to persuade people not to paint their windows white but to use the rich colours that dominated window frames from the early 19th century and untill 1945, dark green, blue, red and black. Just take a look at old photos and paintings of Victorian and early 20th century street scenes.

Now everything is white, even the plastic ones. Why?

 

[skier-hughes]

Does your wife know she is plastered all over the net in her slippers? I would be furious. :shock:

Thank goodness she had her dressing gown on then!!!! Could have been very embarassing otherwise. There's hundreds of pics of her on the net, one more isn't going to make a difference :wink:

 

[Schoolmarm]

Joechip, mine are mens slippers from Next.

Graham, :shock: hundreds?


I loved all the pictures posted of houses with dark windows. It utterly transformed the appearance. If ever we can afford to ditch the old pvc ones here I will have either bare wood or dark green or black.

 

[skier-hughes]

Graham, :shock: hundreds?


I loved all the pictures posted of hoiuses with dark windows. It utterly transformed the appearance. If ever we can afford to ditch the old pvc ones here I will have either bare wood or dark green or black.

Definately, it ranges from lot's of things she's done, prizes and accolades, which have been recorded and put on the web, our wedding had a blog which we had pictures on, the wedding was broadcast on the web for our elderly relatives in Canada, Australia and some very good friends from North Wales who couldn't make it, our wedding photographer used our wedding to promote a new style he was promoting so more pictures made it that way, the companies she does work for. I just googled and MSN'd her, she comes second in MSN and 7th in google, with a picture in those pages.

She's not shy

If I have time later I'm going to repaint my windows and see what colour looks nice.... Though Jo of many internet pictures likes and wants white, so I don't expect it'll change!!!!

Graham

 

[Lady_Mari]

I have had a virtually 100% failure rate in trying to persuade people not to paint their windows white but to use the rich colours that dominated window frames from the early 19th century and untill 1945, dark green, blue, red and black. Just take a look at old photos and paintings of Victorian and early 20th century street scenes.

Now everything is white, even the plastic ones. Why?

Biff, I do so agree with you!
I used to live in a Gd II hall house that when we changed from the 1940 Crittal frames to wood frames the planning people told us we would have to paint them white & use putty & not beading for the glazing. Well, we refused to use paint & instead used a product called Aquatex (I think thats right) which is a coloured stain we had made in dark green & beading too. They looked lovely against the cream of the house walls.

So perhaps the planners contribute to the all white look?

 

[Nemesis]

I have somewhere an old article by the late and much missed Peter Maitland Hood which detailed the history of paint, and white(ish) certainly has historic credibility. As indeed has putty.

I have a friend who used to be a CO for the London Borough of I********. I recall a discussion on here about why, in the Conservation Area, railings were to be painted black when historically they may have been other colours.

He said it's because once given a choice people would then want to paint them all manner of other colours and it would be very difficult to manage and it would all end up simply looking a mess. Give no choice and at least you get something aesthetically not too disparate.

Actually he was much more rude than that about what people want to do to historic buildings given a choice, but that about summarises it.

 

[biffvernon]

White was dominant before the early 19th century. Then the new colours produced by the chemical industry caught the Victorian imagination.

The white(ish) colour was the result of lead carbonate turning to lead sulphide in the polluted air. TiO2 doesn't suffer that fate.

 

[Nemesis]

I know I have what Peter wrote and should type it out and post it when I get a chance.

Sadly, the article linked to in my first post here has gone awol from the site, but others are still there:


http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6346&highlight=peter+hood

 

[Cloudscape]

I have had a virtually 100% failure rate in trying to persuade people not to paint their windows white but to use the rich colours that dominated window frames from the early 19th century and untill 1945, dark green, blue, red and black. Just take a look at old photos and paintings of Victorian and early 20th century street scenes.

Now everything is white, even the plastic ones. Why?

I have been banging on about this for years as well. At my Victorian soon-to-be-sold (I hope) place in the NW, I have black windows on the north side, where the sun won't cook the paint, and gunge-y cream on the south side. 8)

I remember streets from the 50s and 60s where all the paintwork was still maroon, green, black, brown - in some cases the windows blended in beautifully with the colours of brick, stone and plants.

I tell everyone that windows weren't supposed to be white, but I noticed Hugh Lander advocates white, and white lead paint goes back donkeys' years. Apparently, white lead works well with linseed oil.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/paint/paint.htm

I have wondered if, especially in cities, where the buildings were mainly dark and grimy from the soot in the air, lighter-coloured paints were hard to maintain.

 

[Nemesis]

A site search found this, and I do feel sad as I wondered at the time why the conversation stopped, which wasn't like Peter. It was his last post here and he died very shortly after, suddenly and far too young. A great deal of historic buildings expertise was lost to us all, not just here but in the wider world of conservation.




http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5760&highlight=peter+maitland+hood

I know I have printed off a longer article about paint colours which I will endeavour to type up, although I'm sure I have done in the past and it will be in the site archive somewhere.

Early white paint wasn't washable, I do recall!