Replacement Windows Dilemma - views sought

[masochists-r-us]

We have a 17th C stone farmhouse and replaced the front windows last year with traditional oak leaded lights (were scruffy 60's softwood casements) which we're very happy with.
We're now applying for LBC to replace the rear windows and had thought we would go for the same since 3 of the rooms are dual aspect.However our CO is saying we need to go for simple casements with a horizontal glazing bar since it was customary for people to have less fancy windows on the rear of the building.I should add that none of the openings on the rear are original so in our view whatever we put there will not be authentic. If we go this way our kitchen, dining room and sitting room will have different windows on the front to the back which although may be the case for buildings that have naturally been though various stages of development over many years, I don't understand the argument for doing it deliberately.
The problem is with an 8 week consent time and the VAT deadline looming, we're worried about getting into an argument we can't win.
Any advice please ?

 

[biffvernon]

Picture of the leaded window?

 

[CliffordPope]

it was customary for people to have

That's a very selective use of the "customary" argument.

Only the very richest people had windows at all.

Lots of things were "customary" then:

no plumbing
no flushing loos
no Yale locks
no central heating

and of course no building regulations whatsoever!

 

[Penners]

On the basis of no survey evidence whatsoever, I would hazard a guess that the majority of period properties have non-matching windows, randomly scattered around the building. They represent the history of the building, changing tastes and changing technologies.

Personally, I wouldn't lose any sleep about having dissimilar windows, even in the same room.

 

[MdB]

Our house has dissimilar windows front and back. They were all fitted at the same time and are made from plastic :? . The front have wonky dividing bars whilst the rear don't.

Once funds allow, we are going to replace them and likely will keep the difference in styles as it seems appropriate for us.

 

[Maddison]

A photograph or two would be useful. However in wider terms, although the argument for lesser quality features to the rear of houses is generally true is there any evidence that your house was treated in this manner? If not there is probably no evidence either that the owners at the time did not have enough money or enough 'show off' that they would have treated any room where they would have guests visit that they wanted the character of the interior to show off too in which case its perfectly feasible that windows in dual aspect rooms would match.

 

[masochists-r-us]

Thanks for replies thus far. Would be happy to post some photos, but have real difficulty with this site as my images at circa 2Mb are too big and I have struggled to resize them.
Any bright ideas welcome !

 

[another_richard]

Resizing photographs without photoshop:

http://www.gimp.org/

 

[MdB]

Resizing photographs without photoshop:

http://www.gimp.org/

Not the easiest program to use straight off (though it is very good and very powerful (and free!)).

Image -> Scale_Image is the option you are looking for to resize your pic.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

It depends upon your version of Windows and which image applications you have installed.

More recent versions of Windows have some photo editing applications installed by default, or you may have installed some, or some may have come on the disk with your camera.

Without knowing which software you have, it is difficult to provide precise instructions - however there are two main ways to reduce the filesize of your photos in your photo/image application:

a) Resize the picture physically - a camera will typically take a picture that is roughly 2000 pixels wide by 1600 pixels tall or larger. The total number of pixels in the picture is related to the overall filesize. Threfore if you resize (sometimes called scale, or image size in the menus) the picture to something like 600 pixels wide by 480, then the number of pixels used and thus filesize is smaller. For web viewing 600px is plenty large enough on screen.

b) reduce the quality of the exported/saved image/increase compression. This will be in the "export" or save function of the software - it you save as a JPeg, there may be automatic functions to save at "best, high quality, low quality, 80%, etc etc". Or there may be options to optimise the photo for a specific purpose (eg printing, web, email, etc.) - choose web and an appropriate physical size and an dyou should be fine.

Alternatively use somethign like Picasa or other online photo library tool which will also include similar functionality to resize/scale your images.

I use Picasa for library managment and Macromedia Fireworks for all image editing. For really straightforwad stuff (such as scaling images to put on PPUK) I'll use the Windows photo viewer/editing software that came with Win7. On the limux boxes I'll use GIMP.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've always thought that the difference in rear-facing features was only 'customary' in cases where the occupants were strapped for cash and therefore poured all their available money into making a good impression on the front-facing parts of their houses. Fair enough.

But is that, alone, a good reason for enforcing that approach when current owners are not so cash-strapped?

I dare say that some houses were late in having gas, electricity, central heating etc, installed because the owners at the time could not afford it, but that doesn't seem to ever be a reason for disallowing such things these days.

Having said that, I realise that windows have a bigger impact on the look of a house than internal services, but in this particular case the original windows are lost so who knows what were originally installed anyway?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

the difference in rear-facing features was only 'customary'

Call me a traditionalist, but I've always preferred rear-facing features to be different to the front-facing ones. Structurally (and visually) it is much better if the rear features are set lower and smaller than those at the front...

 

[Flyfisher]

Are we going to have this photo cropping up on every thread?

 

[paddytt]

We have 2 cast iron, 3 zinc, 6 leaded, 4 wood and one Crittal window (unfortunately) in our house.

Whilst I don't agree with your CO's logic, it would be boring if they were al the same!

TT

 

[Penners]

Are we going to have this photo cropping up on every thread?

I do hope so!