We have lived in the same house for the past 28 years. (yikes!) That is sort of accurate, because the house isn't the same as it was when we moved in. We have altered each and every room over the years - knocking down walls, extending small rooms, letting the light in and even putting a room in the roof. So we have lived in the same home for 28 years, but the house is not really the same. It has changed as our needs have changed. And being practical people we do most of the work ourselves. It is my job to look after all the wood, so I sand and revarnish doors and windows every now and then.
The whole time we have lived here, my bedroom windows have irked me. When we bought the house all those years ago, they had been varnished with a red stain, but as they were perfectly functional letting in light and air and opening and closing efficiently, sanding them back down to wood and revarnishing with clear varnish was always at the bottom of the To-do list.
Until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided enough is enough. If I didn't tackle the job now, it is highly probable that the irksome windows would stay as is for the next home owners. To be fair, I have sanded and varnished the outside of them several times, so they look fine. It was just the inside I hadn't got round to because a) it is a schlepp and b) being in our bedroom, not too many people saw them.
The schleppy bit is the dust created by the orbital sander, and the difficulty of access because of the burglar bars. There are four windows that needed sanding, and so on a mild day, I unscrewed the hinges from the frame of one, removed the handle, prised off the beading to remove the glass and plugged in my faithful orbital sander (grit 80 to remove the stain, 100 to get a smooth finish on the wood.) But I was not having a great week. My head space was fuzzy, and my mood was not improved by the appearance of a small crack in the glass as the last piece of beading came off. Sigh. I knew the crack would run, so I bashed the glass out - no need for delicate handling any more - and headed to a glass supplier to get a new pane (and an extra one in case I made another mistake....), off the hardware store for putty and hinges and then back to the task at hand.
The wood is beautiful. Once the veneer was off, the grain stood out, and the earthy brown colour made my heart sing. I get a real buzz out of restoring wood and this was very satisfying. Over the years I have got better at glazing and managed to put in the new glass and beading with no more hiccoughs. And, before night fall I had hung the window - admittedly with only one of the three coats of varnish it needs (Woodoc Marine Gloss ( rated 5 * on the Wendy Varnish Scale)) - with the help of my daughter.
It took just a day to replace the window I hated for 28 years with one I love. I just needed the determination to start (and energy.)
I tackled the second pane a few days later. Two more to go.
I don't think I am alone at leaving what is important to us personally at the bottom of the to-do list. There are always more pressing needs. As long as the front of my house (so to speak) was presentable, I could put off working on the difficult-to-get-to inside bits. But I have found that once the old veneer has been removed, the grain and patterns of my life look more authentic and hold a beauty of their own. Life still needs varnish though, just as my windows do, to protect from harsh conditions and the outside world, but a transparent one will do.
Removing layers of history is hard work and messy. But every morning when I look out of my "new" window, I see the world in a different light. I get a warm fuzzy feeling that I have changed something that has been bothering me for years.
