Rotten beams and nicotine: fixing up our fixer-upper.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Rotten beams and nicotine: fixing up our fixer-upper.

daggerdragon: Jan 22, 2006; My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

Thread bookmarked. I've gutted and renovated my own late-1880s house (that also had that crazy insane wood panelling and drop ceilings everywhere), so it's always fun seeing other older houses get renovated.

Why not replace the windows? They look old, and you might be paying a lot for heat this winter.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2012 19:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 15:10

daggerdragon: Jan 22, 2006; My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

RizieN posted:

I own a home built in 1880, and the windows are a bitch. More than a few of them leak so much air right now. I want to get them replaced but keep the old style. Neighbor said theirs was quoted somewhere around 800-900 USD per window, I'm a new home owner so I don't know if that's actually good but it sounds loving horrible. Also the wood on a few of them is all lovely and chipping away, I have no idea how to do anything with wood but I imagine the price on that is going to suck too.

Also we live in a Historic district and there's some council somewhere that has to approve anything you do to the front of the house, back and sides are fair game I think. I need to find that info because we need to change the paint color soon.

Luckily everyone on our block is into keeping things nice, and there's a pretty strong sense of community and everyone helps each other out. Our street is like an oasis of old architecture (From 1880's to 1910ish), three blocks over you'll see some lovely inner city type buildings with lovely vinyl siding and... eh, just trashy stuff. Another good thing is that the city is putting money into cleaning everything up, so hopefully all this debt is worth something in the future.

e; Related: I admire your work OP, I have so many projects I want to do, and no time... I wish I could just man up and power through some projects after work but I just feel so drained that when I get home I don't want to do poo poo.

If you're in a historic district, you're pretty screwed on prices. For reference, I replaced 11 windows in my late 1800s house for $110-$160 each (depending on size, of course). I chose the mid-grade (8800 series) vinyl windows from Home Depot and they look just fine. My house may look like the rest on the street, but I don't really care. I wanted the old, drafty, leaky, and in most cases, painted or nailed shut windows to go away and lower my ridiculous heating bills!

If you got the money for aesthetics, great, go for it. If you're needing lower winter bills, ain't nothing wrong with Energy Star-certified Home Depot windows.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2012 22:09

daggerdragon: Jan 22, 2006; My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

Anphear posted:

Are Aluminium windows (single, double and triple glazed) not a big thing in the northern hemisphere? Or is vinyl used instead of aluminium.

Never heard of aluminum windows. My new ones are vinyl with argon gas sandwiched between the two for insulation (Low-E).

# ¿ Nov 27, 2012 02:12

daggerdragon: Jan 22, 2006; My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

Koivunen posted:

Edit: Just went out and inspected the city's work with the gas line... They ripped up my garden and put the gas line directly in the middle of it. They also squashed the tiered metal thing that I used for my tomato vines. So much for digging next spring.

Could you do a raised bed instead?

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 22:25

daggerdragon: Jan 22, 2006; My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

sneakyfrog posted:

I read that as busting out the cabernet..

I suggest holding off on the cabernet until the busting is done (at least for the day)...

# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 15:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Rotten beams and nicotine: fixing up our fixer-upper.