Hello! Soon to be an Old House Owner

[Prozart]

My wife and I are going to be purchasing our first home, just a couple weeks away from closing. It was built in 1942 and I've just started to do research on restoring old houses and found a lot of great stuff out there. Overall it's in great shape, original hardwood floors, glass doorknobs, and most of the original wood windows. At first I was planning on replacing the windows since they're single pane but it only took about three minutes of research to realize that's probably a horrible idea.

[heartwood]

welcome to the neighborhood prozart!
your wife married a very smart man--he realizes the value in restoring old windows rather than replacing them...the original windows are 73 years old...that equals THREE window replacements!!

good luck with your closing and stick close...you'll make friends and learn plenty...

...jade

[SkipW]

Welcome! You have come to the right place to learn about restoring your windows (if they need it) to their glory. The nice lady above /\ who welcomed you is the expert on window restoration and can guide you, and many here can assist in any question or task that may present itself.

Enjoy your new home!

[Gothichome]

Prozart, welcome to the district. We are kind of nosy here, so pics are a must. Comgadulation on your first home,

[Prozart]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm excited about how active this forum is! And seems like a lot of friendly, knowledgeable people here. I will definitely update you with pictures as soon as I'm able and I'll definitely take before/after pictures of the floor and windows!

[Gothichome]

Yes, if there is an old home related problem, you can bet some one here has dealt with it and make suggestions to get you going in the right direction.

[Wackyshack]

Welcome to the madness!

[SouthernLady]

Congratulations on your upcoming purchase--you will never see old houses the same way again!

Bless you, bless you, bless you for saving those old windows! You will never be able to buy new ones with that same quality.

Take lots and lots of pictures of everything you can think of before you move in so you can chart your progress!

[Sara]

Welcome to the journey! Looking forward to hearing about it!

[Prozart]

Thanks guys! I'll make sure to take tons of pictures and post ones you would want to see. And I've already been fundamentally changed. I went from thinking we'd have to replace the windows to actually being kinda giddy about restoring them, lol.

Unfortunately they've replaced a couple of the original windows with vinyl and vinyl siding. As badly as I'd like to completely purge the house of any vinyl, I can't afford to quite yet. And I'm not sure what's underneath the siding. Time will tell though cause I can't sleep well at night knowing it's out there. =P