New York Renovator

I’ve been planning this coming year’s projects. I am really hoping we can complete the living room and install new windows. I wish I could install new windows in one big swoop in this house, but that would be very, very expensive. The windows are old style, which means they are huge. They are all almost six feet high and three feet wide. There are thirteen of them in the house. That’s a lot of glass to replace. The downstairs windows aren’t too bad, but upstairs are a problem.That’s my old 1855 house in the photo below; it’s a one-and-a-half storey house.

A lot of the older houses were constructed as one-and-a-half storeys. There is no “real” attic. The upstairs bedrooms have sloped ceilings, so if you are a very tall person, you have to hunch down to get to the sides of the rooms. Moving around in the rooms isn’t too bad, but it is very hard to place bunkbeds or tall shelves in these rooms. The real problem is with the windows– the upstairs windows are the same size as the downstairs windows. So, the windows in the bedroom are full-length; that is, the windows stretch from floor to ceiling in the bedrooms. This makes privacy an issue, because we live in town.

There is NO WAY I will ever, ever chop down the window size, however. You know what I am talking about– those houses that used to have such grand windows and now they look like they have a busted eye (see photo)? You can really see it from the exterior of the home. At some point, the homeowners replaced their large windows with a much smaller one, and re-sided over the gap. This destroys the symmetrical beauty of the home. I don’t care how hard it is to replace my windows, I will not resize them and mar the aesthetics of the house.

My house is set back from the road about 75 feet (most of the neighboring houses are only 25 feet from the road, so we love our front yard). But I do not like the bedroom windows so large. Kids don’t always close their blinds when the sun sets, lol, and every person strolling by can see everything (including the disastrous condition of the rooms). Right now I have dark-green blinds and very heavy drapes over these monster windows. I hate it, because this makes to rooms so drab and dark. But how else can we have the privacy? In the “old” days, they used decorative shades (like this stenciled blind I saw when we visited Fort Ontario in Oswego, NY. This dates back to the Civil War era). I think that is impractical now, although I like the decorative idea.

Then, it hit me! I was perusing home blogs and saw an idea for decorative window film for windows.

In the past, I have seen the “frosted” kind used a lot for bathrooms, and, honestly, I have never liked them because I never liked that “typical” bathroom frosted film. It always looked so tacky, so I never looked into them. Until today. Whoa!!! Talk about progress! Now they have stenciled designs, stained-glass designs, shoji Japanese-style designs, etc. Welcome to the 21st century! There’s some really gorgeous stuff. Check it out at Remlor.com.

What do you think of the stained-glass look? I live next to a church and I think it would be so funky in my daughter’s bedroom. Heh.

Obviously, I have been having some fun “window shopping,” if you will. Ha! I also like the “colored” glass look, and there are frosted flowery patterns, too. The selection is excellent. And all you need to install the stuff is a razor, scissors, and etc.

I’m really pleased. I love seeing more options other than that 70s “frosted” window film look. Finally! I recommend if you are looking for some privacy (or a funky decorative look), think about window film. It’s much better than chopping your windows to a smaller size. Please, don’t ever chop the size of your windows! There are much better alternatives.

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