No More Nerve-Wearing Perturbations

There's a chill in the air these days, which means we need to get our storm windows back on ASAP!

When we re-shingled, we removed an array of mismatched storms. Most were triple-track aluminum, some perhaps original wood, but none in good shape. With our beautiful new casings and shingles, we were hard pressed to have the old mismatched storms re-installed.

For replacements we decided to go with Adams Architectural Millwork, out of Gelana, Illinois. For a long time we had considered some aluminum "historic" storms from Allied, but in the end we knew that only a wooden storm would do the house justice. The ones we ordered will have screens that can pop in place of the glass from the inside, so no climbing on ladders every spring. Here's an example of the wooden Adams storm:



In the meantime, we've started on the window restoration project. We picked the two front windows, as they are the first thing you see from the street. Recall we also "trued-up" the center bay and right window up front. So this bay has seen its fair share of attention.




We made a cool discovery when the sashes were removed this morning. We've always known our first floor windows had some interesting hardware. There are two buttons on the casing, to the right of each window. The windows are all long-since painted shut, so we didn't know exactly what function the buttons performed.



This hardware is apparently so rare that none of the builders or window restoration people we've had out to the house have recognized it. When the windows came out today, we were able to get a closer look.

We found this mechanism inside - a solid looking cog, and a set of wooden "teeth" along the sides of the sashes.


A closer looks reveals the name "Loxit Sash Balance," a patented product out of Providence Rhode Island.












Of course we googled them and found one or two hits, one from a School Journal published in 1901 (same year the house was built). It seems to cover everything from textbooks to construction. But it did have these interesting notes about our hardware...

The Loxit makes windows open and close easily!:

"No need of sending a boy with a long stick to tug and heave while the other pupils look on with unconcealed amusement."

The Loxit eliminates that annoying rattle!:

"The Loxit also does a good work in preventing windows from rattling. The sash is held so firmly in its place, that, no matter if it has undergone shrinkage it cannot get started on a course of nerve-wearing perturbations."

I am ALL FOR elimination of nerve-wearing perturbations. If only they made one that applied to 4, 3 and 1 year olds.