In the summer after my senior year of high school, when I scored a veritable windfall job that paid a king's salary of $9 an hour, I gave almost no thought to the way this job might shape me and my interests as a person. I was an 18 year old kid and the only thing I cared about was the fact I wouldn't be working at The Finish Line in the mall making $4.50 an hour while being forced to touch people's feet and tell them how "tight their new kicks look," as I had done for the prior two years. I had enough of being called Al Bundy by my friends and dealing with the general public.

As it turned out, the summer I spent sweating away the days on the floor of a window restoration shop along the banks of the twisting Cuyahoga River in "The Flats" of downtown Cleveland helped me learn several valuable lessons. First, $9.00 per hour felt like a lot more when I eagerly accepted the job than it did when I was sweltering in an unconditioned wood shop standing on my feet for eight hours a day and working on salvaged window sash. Second, old things from buildings are absolutely worth saving, no matter what kind of shape they're in. And third, sometimes even old things could use a little improvement or two to correct some of the problems those old things might have always had.

Which brings me to present day, and how the first major phase of our recent window restoration approach allowed us to establish a paint free and prepared surface where we can begin our true restoration/rehabilitation work. The sash weights had been removed, previous ineffective weather stripping discarded, sash pulleys taken out and cleaned up, and the sash were laying by the side of the opening. It's one of those renovation moments where you look at the giant hole in the side of your house and think, "What have I done?!?"

Fear not. Though a large and unprotected hole in the side of one's house can be worrisome (especially when it begins to rain), we (and possibly you if you're using this as reference) are on our way to a beautiful and functional window. We just need to follow a few more very important steps. Remember our list?

As I've mentioned previously, there is a somewhat significant design flaw in our windows. The weight pocket doors extend all of the way down the side of the unit and into the sill of the window. While this was easier to construct at the mill, it allows water that blows beneath the lower sash, or snow that accumulates and begins to melt, to creep into the weight pocket, seep into the wall, and ultimately bring destruction. The end result of this unwanted guest is typically damage or complete failure of the plaster. Water is, after all, public enemy #1 of old homes.