It's the little things...

...like new windows.  I should really have put up this post before the scaffolding one, as the windows were (mostly) installed before it went up.

Poor St Abbs' windows were well and truly knackered.  The frames were rotten, there were cracks in the panes and all bar a couple had been sealed tightly shut with paint *sigh*  I'm convinced that the house was actually very sad about her windows ~ I know that Adrian and I certainly were!  So, new windows were one of the first things on the home renovation agenda.  

I actually remembered to take some close-up photos of the dining room window before Jock had done too much destruction LOLYou can see part of the old window here but it doesn't really tell the true story of just how bad they all were.  Jock stripped off the lath and plaster from around the window recess ~ bloody hell, it was a horrible, messy job!  I dread to think what it would be like to have a whole room stripped out 😱

  I was very interested in the stonework ~ the house walls are a good couple of feet deep.  

It certainly wasn't a straightforward job to fit the new windows, unlike in our old house where the old windows came out and the new ones more or less went straight in.

There was some damp on this side of the window, where the old frame had been letting in water.  Jock went down with a nasty cough and was off work for a couple of days after he'd got the dining room window in, so by the time he came back the wall had dried out nicely. 

Jock replaced the old lath and plaster with new plasterboard, and also fitted a lovely deep windowsill ~ perfect for my houseplants!

It was the same story in the sitting room ~ well, in every room to be honest.

And lovely new windowsills in here, too ~ just as well, as I do have quite the collection of houseplants LOL  We kept with the same style windows as the originals throughout the house.

This window is in the bathroom lobby ~ the old window here was one of only two in the whole house which could actually be opened.  Mind you, both of them had to be propped open with a little wooden block as the sliding mechanism was broken!  We will have the actual bathroom window replaced once the room has been stripped out ~ methinks the lath and plaster in there will all have to be replaced because of all the damp issues from the old roof and chimney.

 I took this photo looking down into the wall cavity when Jock stripped off the landing window surround.  You can see how the plaster oozed through the lath when the house was built.

The landing window is the same pattern as the original one, except we decided to have blue glass in the corners to match those in the front door.  Like the original, this window doesn't open.  Jock fitted a lovely frame around the opening, which has finished it off beautifully.

He also fitted a frame around the front door.  It took a little while to get used to the fact we no longer had to slam the door to shut it!

The old kitchen window had been replaced with a uPVC one at some point ~ goodness knows how bad it must have been for the previous owners to have done that 😲  We still decided to have it replaced, though, so that it was in keeping with the other new ones.

And finally here is the new back door.  I had a bit of a job to get far enough back to take the photo, as the scaffolding was in the way.  We had to wait a while longer for this door to "come home" (as the folk up here say) than the windows and front door.  I do love this colour!  It's called Chartwell Green and is such a pretty shade.  The old door was solid, so having the new one half-glazed has made quite a difference to the light levels in the kitchen.

I haven't taken any photos of the bedroom windows from indoors but here is a shot of St Abbs' face 😊  This was taken after the scaffolding came down last week.  The guys have virtually finished painting the front now, so there will be even more photos coming along soon!