Windows Forever

That's how long it feels like the window replacement effort is taking -- forever. 

And it's kind of a mental struggle right now; there's like 2 dozen individual things ongoing, but none are finished, and it's getting tough to keep track of it all and maintain any sort of momentum. 

The first window, its sashes need another coat of paint on one side, which I'll knock out tomorrow. Today, I tried throwing some paint stripper on the lone piece of the original jamb that still remains; results were kinda as I expected them to be. 

The top layers, which was modern latex paint, came right off. The brown and green, which is old school stuff, didn't budge. I'll probably leave it like that, sand it as best I can, and then paint over it. I don't need it to look perfect.

The second window, I got its sashes primed a couple days ago.

I got one of the sashes glazed today. It took a couple hours and I still suck at it. I'll get the other one glazed tomorrow and then paint them both in a couple weeks after the glazing sets up enough to allow me to do so.

**UPDATE** -- I glazed the other sash too. Didn't take as much time as the one before it, but the results are about a 7 or 8 out of 10. I'll never NOT be happy about not getting a 10, but sometimes you have to acknowledge that you're not going to master something after only 3 or 4 tries. Besides, this window replacement job is, primarily, practice for the big, main floor windows. Better to get the kinks out on the little windows almost nobody will ever see than on the big boys on the front facade.

And then there's the third window, which still has stone being repointed. 

The exterior side is done - for now - and on the interior side, I've worked my way up to the wood sill. It's come a long way from where it was, but there's still a little work to do before I can remove the existing jamb and window sashes. 

There are a couple voids on the sides that are problematic; the stone along the vertical sides of the window opening sit precariously due to mortar rot. In some cases, the mortar is almost entire gone, or, almost as bad, piles of dust. As a result, I have to strategically work my way up the sides, repointing a little, removing a little mortar, repointing a little, etc. Tearing out too much mortar, which is easy to do given its condition, could lead to stones actually falling out of the wall. Long story short, I have to do some surgical mortar replacement in spaces that are tough to reach. With the previous two windows I was able to do this with the jambs removed, but this window is the worst of the three and the jamb is the only thing holding some of the stones in place.  

Bottom right and left corners of the window -- those are the voids shown above, and that need to be addressed before I can remove the jamb. 

That's all I got for now. I really can't wait to be done with windows for a while...