Cabbaging onto Treasure

Have you ever thought about old windows?  The sash kind with the weights in the wall pocket and the glass panes in the wooden frames?  They are both more complex than given credit and simpler to repair than you'd think.
I am proud to say that I have successfully repaired a few of these babies complete with reglazing glass and restringing weights.  Not for the faint-hearted, but not terribly technical.
It involves crowbars, so my husband had a good time.

There comes a time, though, when you just can't face doing a whole house full of them in a short amount of time.  This was the decision my neighbors made when selling their house.  They decided it was more realistic to simply replace the windows than repair them.  I was okay with their decision since A) It's not my house and 2) I cabbaged onto one of the old windows before the contractors hauled them off to the dump.

I hauled out my scrapers, my paints, my stencils, and glue gun.  I purchased a few odds and ends from a craft/hobby store, and then I flounced up the old broken window into a nifty house number sign for my front porch!

I don't have any process pictures, but as just a general guide:

1) Scrape old paint and window glaze away.  To make life easier, you want to get all the old window glaze off so that the panes of glass are just loose in the wooden frame with only the glazing points holding them in.

2) Gently bend back the glazing points from the glass and remove the panes.

3) Scrape and lightly sand the frame, making repairs with glue or wood putty where needed.

4) Paint your frame the desired color.

5) Clean the panes and reposition them in the frame.

6) Reglaze or just use silicone caulk to seal the panes back to the frame.

7) Stencil desired words, numbers, or sayings on the glass

8) Add any embellishments, and hang it up!

9) Admire your handiwork in creating a literal 'Trash to Treasure' item, preferably while sipping a well-deserved glass of wine!