Refurbishing Windows - House Maintenance Pt III

Remember the neglected windows?  I've been hard at work and fairly successful at restoring them to an acceptable state.  However, it is a learning process as you will see.

I started with this:

I removed all the loose peeling paint and rotted wood.

Got the wood hardener out.

I have to admit I was not convinced this stuff would work.  It is made by the Elmer's glue people and it looks just like Elmer's glue.  Like a 2nd grader I got it all over my hands and slathered it on the bare wood.

And no I didn't eat it like so many of my classmates did in 2nd grade.  I can still hear Mrs. Luney scolding them and shudder at the thought of getting whacked with her wooden ruler on the palm of my hand!  (elementary school could be brutal at times!)

I let the hardener dry completely.  It completely sealed the wood!  Then I mixed up some Bondo and sealed all the cracks.

As you can see I didn't work quite fast enough and it hardened before I could get it applied.  But it sands easily.  The point wasn't to make the windows look new again.  I wanted to seal them from the weather before they were totally ruined.

I glazed the panes that needed it and put a thick coat of paint on top of it all.  This step alone took 2 hours and I'm probably supposed to wait to paint the putty in the panes, but I thought I'd try it and see how it worked.

I think the next windows will not only be easier, but will look better now that I know how to do it!

I still have the top of this one to do today.  My ladder was too short to reach last night.

Remember the chest of drawers?  Well it ended in disaster.  I kept it wrapped in a tarp for weeks til I had time to work on it with no rain in the forecast.  I got it primed and got one coat of paint on when the thunderstorm struck.  It rained for 2 hours.  I had covered it with the tarp but by the next day after the overnight drizzle and a day in the damp it had swollen and smeared and looked awful.  I put a case of water on each of the drawers to force the dovetail back in place when it dried and hoped for the best.

The drawers are fine and now fit in the chest!  I, personally, think it looks dreadful, but the recipient declared it beautiful and wouldn't let me repaint it.  There really is no accounting for taste.

Uno is tired from all the work!

This is Bobbi's baby.  He is the only one that won't take peanuts from my hand.

Have a great day!  The inside of the house is finished and I'll post some final pictures later.