If there's one thing that makes me think "I really need to finish the storm windows," it's the bone chilling 4 degree cold we had a week ago (that was the lowest in 20 years) combined with the associated high winds and billowing drapes that accompany it.

Did I just say "billowing drapes?" Well, that doesn't make much sense if the windows are closed. Exactly!

You see, our windows are what you call "leaky." No, I'm not talking about little air leaks you find in almost any window, I'm talking about giant gaps large enough for you to stick your fingers through. When the wind really picks up, it actually whistles through our windows and you can see our heavy window treatments move. But these gaps can't be blamed on an "old window thing." Nope, the age of the window has little to do with it, they're really a "caused by me" thing. Our crazy leaky windows are largely due to the fact I can't seem to finish a project before starting a new one, and I'm midway through the restoration of our windows and haven't yet added back our parting beads, sash stops, weather stripping, or (long overdue) storm windows. I've caused this, I'm at fault, and I accept that. Now it's time to start doing something about it.

To begin remedying our situation I'm going to focus on the next phase of our window restoration process, the installation of spring bronze weather stripping around the window frame's jambs. Ultimately, this is only one aspect of weather stripping our windows, but it's one of the most critical.

At this point in our project, we've removed the sash stops, parting beads, and sash from the windows, stripped the paint from the frames, and made any necessary repairs to the frames.

Before applying the weather stripping, we needed to sand and apply a few coats of paint to the frames. I'm not going to cover the painting process too thoroughly, as it's very straight forward. I like to use a coat of oil/alkyd based primer and follow that up with two coats of our desired trim color. The only caveat, the exterior trim color goes on the upper sash channel, while the interior trim color goes on the lower sash channel. If that sounds confusing, just think of the colors and locations, and when you're likely to see each color (either from inside or outside) when the windows are closed.