Our new house has a total of 12 windows, no two alike. While we would have liked to keep the old wooden windows they’re single glazed and in very poor condition. Replacing wood for wood had been our preferred choice, but the cost is prohibitive. Therefore we opted for PVC in the back and wood in the front and side. For our wooden windows we’ll aim to get a similar style to the existing windows, but in the back we decided for the maximum amount of light possible, without unnecessary cross beams.

We started with the two kitchen windows. When we’d first viewed the house these two windows sat in seperate rooms, one in a utility room, and one in a back storage room. Now that they’ll both be facing onto the kitchen worktop, we want them both to be the same size.

First we had to take out the old window and strip the render, in order to remove the bricks below. The work progressed fairly well, with the odd delay when Chris managed to drop first a chisel, then a level and finally the window edging, down the gap between the two faces of the wall. A bit of fishing with a loop of string managed to retrieve them… eventually.

We were keen to have single panes for the kitchen windows as we look straight out onto the back field. Currently this view is overgrown with brambles, but in the future we should get a lovely view of the hill behind the house and grazing sheep, while washing up.

Our first experience of installing windows was on our current house. When Chris suggested attempting installing them ourselves I thought he was being overambitious, and that putting in windows was something only professionals could do. But after a long day of muddling through on our first window we found it really wasn’t that complicated. Now, on our new house, we didn’t even consider paying someone to install them for us.

Having removed the old frames, both of which were so rotten that they practically fell out with a bit of a shove, we readied the new frame by cutting the windowsill to size and attaching it the frame. The window was then put in place, and holes drilled through the frame into the wall to drive in screws into the wall.

Next the window panes were placed in. These are the largest panes in the whole house, and being triple glazed they were heavy to manhandle into place. Once in, the window beading that holds the panes in place, has to be tapped into place around the edge. It’s a challenge to hit the edging hard enough for it to clip in, but not accidentally smash the window, something we learnt when we smashed a window pane in our last house.

With the two kitchen windows finished we moved to the bathroom window upstairs. This window has always been the worst in the house, not closing properly, so we’ve had to tie it with string. It’s had its uses though, as we’ve used it to break into the house on a couple of occasions when we’ve forgotten our keys or locked ourselves out. Guess we’ll have to be more careful from now on.

The window came out fairly easily however, in this room, as with all of the larger upstairs windows, we have the added complication of needing to add a lintle above the window. Removing the window we could even see how the lack of a lintle had caused the roof support to bow in the middle of the window. Unfortunately, this bowing meant the gap was a few millimetres too small for our new window. After a lot of head scratching Chris used a piece of wood to force the center of the lintle to lift enough for us to wedge more stones beneath it, giving us the extra bit of room we needed.

We’d decided to go with one opening panel in the middle of the window, to help air the bathroom when needed. In time we’ll have a bath sat in front of this window to enjoy the view, and I slightly regretted not have one big pane, but losing the ability to open the window wouldn’t have been practical.

In the shower room the small window was much simplier to install, not needing a lintle above, due to its size.

In total we managed to get four out of the six PVC windows installed this weekend. I had hoped perhaps we’d be able to get all six in, but with taking out bricks and installing lintles the time just flew. With moving day seeming ever closer we’ve decided to leave installing the wooden windows till we’ve moved in, as the back windows are in the worst condition. It’s exciting to see the views framed as they’ll be once the house is completed. We’re incredibly lucky with the beautiful views our house affords us, and what better way to do them justice than framing then with picture-perfect windows.