Windows and doors, and links!
I had the chance to renovate my kitchen and put in good, solid materials after a complete gut. I tried to source as many things as I could as cost-effectively as possible. You can go back to previous posts (click on the “kitchen reno” tag — I think I have tagged everything that way) to get into the nitty-gritty of specific elements including where I saved some bucks; I figure it's helpful to people with my same mentality of Use Up Wear Out Make Do Do Without (but also, get good things if you have to start from scratch). Sometimes we just don't know what the good things are.
I did my best to figure it all out and I'm here to share the knowledge with the collective memory!
Let's talk about windows and doors. I tried very hard to find used items in this department and only succeeded with one (see below).
The truth is, doors and windows are likely not going to be a standard and very particular size, especially in an old house. I mean, the contractor can make the window opening to a standard size as far as the window manufacturer's offerings go — it would be extremely pricey to get a truly custom-sized window, and not at all necessary when everything is being built rather than retro-fitted.
But finding the size you need from among the offerings on the second-hand market turned out not to be feasible for me. Either the things were not the right size or they were not good quality. So this is a place in the budget where we had to accept spending the money for solid, quality items.
These are all Marvin windows and doors (other than the interior door). They are as close to “true lights” (divided panes) as you can get and still have modern energy-efficient windows. If you can renovate truly old windows, absolutely do that. It's not actually cost-effective to replace them. The windows we had were already replacements, and they were not right for the space.
I really wanted a big window over my kitchen sink.
BEFORE – the small window over the sink just looks rather … not in proportion, outside (it's to the right of the porch on the first floor):
AFTER:
(The roof needs re-doing and the front needs repainting, but you get the idea already!)
BEFORE inside:
AFTER inside (you can see the ceiling got raised quite a bit!):
As you come in from the mudroom, I thought it would be more open feeling, and less dark to have a French door (with divided lights as they call them, or panes of glass).
This is the door I was able to find on Facebook Marketplace. It has tempered glass, which we thought was a good idea, given the number of children running through here, and my own clumsiness. A similar door would cost upwards of $1000. I got it for $125, brand new:
I got the brass doorknob and two others for about $1 each on Facebook Marketplace (new they go for about $20 each).
Here is French door from inside the kitchen …
BEFORE — that is the original, solid door and it is good quality:
AFTER:
It makes it so that I can see who comes in — I have a sightline now right into the mudroom. It makes the little entry area right inside the door more open and airy. This is what Christopher Alexander calls a pattern — to be able to see from one room to the next (but not have everything be totally open), to give a sense of connection and settlement.
The other day I opened the window above the sink, due to Spring making an appearance! The windows are all casement windows, which I love.
This was my inspiration photo for this window and especially this corner, saved on my Pinterest:
I hope to someday find a vintage dish rack of some kind for the wall of the fridge.
I really encourage you to keep Pinterest boards, well organized, for what inspires you, even if it's just a photo of something that produces a certain feeling. You can see I didn't need to replicate the photo exactly to get the feeling I wanted. Here is my Pinterest — look at my kitchen inspiration board to see how minutely I organized it.
On the other side of the room, here is the window above the vintage sink:
And here is the sliding door to the right of it, on the same wall:
I considered a real French door here, but it was not going to be able to open inwards, due to the traffic pattern, and it's not a reasonable idea at all to have it open outwards here in New England, not to mention in this corner of the house where snow and ice can really pile up if we are not careful. So a slider it is. I made the decision to have it a couple of inches taller (but no wider) than before, and I think that makes a big difference, actually, without costing much more (about $100 more). People do seem to sell sliding doors second-hand, but my contractor frowned on cutting corners here. The door has to remain square and be solid — this one gets a lot of use for most of three seasons.
A big part of why things look a lot better is the trim — and this is true all around. Hefty trim goes a long way to making things look solid and high quality.
What do you think? I think I mentioned at some point that I came across an article about “mistakes people make when renovating their kitchens” and one of them was getting windows that are too large, because then you don't have room for cabinets and storage. “Well, I guess I made that mistake!” thought I! However, I am content. Before, there was a shortage of light in this room. Now it feels light and airy, and I still have plenty of storage!
bits & pieces
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Really yummy Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake that I would simply call cake!
How to Build a Screech-Owl Nest Box
Poetry at Home — try it!
from the archives
Need a good book to read? Follow along my book club posts about Joseph Ratzinger's Spirit of the Liturgy. They start here.
Now is a good time to figure out how to have a reasonably clean house, since outdoor activities make it hard to spend too much time on housekeeping!
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