The Social Ladder

It's that time of year again. Only this time we have have curious cats to deal with.  Most of the climbers managed to find their way down without falling.

But oh, they're so naughty!

(Paul was not amused.  He was less amused than I was when we came home from church to discover the full length of the nave floor covered in a complex web of yarn one Sunday afternoon.)

Escape!

What happens when the window is wide open so the paint on the window sill can dry?  Is this a trick question?!  Of course the cats try to escape.

Yes, Mama Catt climbed head first down the entire ladder... three different times.  She became pretty quick at it, too.

Pipes really wanted to follow, but she was too timid.  Robin tells her to "Get off."

Elliot brings Mama back,

 but even this couldn't keep her in:

Since she lived on the street by herself for a year, I often wonder if she would leave for her freedom and never come back.  I don't really want to find out.

Undo, Redo

If only it were as easy as ctrl-Z and ctrl-Y; we would be able to get all six windows done before winter strikes.  But by now we'll be pleased if we can strip and then repaint the frames and trim around just two of our windows.

Undo.

Redo.

Undo.

Redo.

If it looks like I don't know what I'm doing, it's because I don't.  However, I've glazed a few panes since then, and I'm much handier at it now.

And while I'm dreaming about ctrl-z, I sure wish I could tap my fingers and undo the breaking panes of glass. For one, those old panes reflected back little wavy distortions characteristic of old glass.  For another, replacing them will cost us more money than we'd like.  Finally, missing panes of glass delays the whole project from being completely finished.

But we're still making progress.  Undoing.  Redoing.

Getting the Stains off the Glass

Water and a wet rag took the window from this:

to this:

The principle at work is to start mild and then use increasingly heavier cleaners only as needed.  I really wanted to see what wonders the #0000 steel wool would do to it, but we don't have time for me to be picky.  It does look better than it did, anyway, and that's good enough for now.

I Can See Clearly Now

The stuff on the window panes refused to go quietly with a razor blade, so I did some research.  A professional window cleaner on the internet recommends using #0000 steel wool in cases like this.

Boy, does he know what he's talking about.

(That's not a crack you see in the window; it's the arched window resting with the rest of the windows that don't have cracks.  *sigh*)

Now I'll have to ask someone like him about the best way to safely clean stained glass windows.

Not Framed: I Really Did It

The height of the windows from the inside is one thing.  The height from outside is just a little bit more.  Look carefully, and a small person in navy blue should be visible next to that red space elevator leaning against the building.  Near the top of that ladder is where I've spent two of my recent afternoons.

In preparation for winter and to protect the wood storm window frames and trim from its effects, I've been scraping out old glazing and paint while trying to balance comfortably on the narrow ladder rungs.

The view from there isn't always pretty, either:

What is that cloudy stuff on the inside of the glass?!  I don't know, but I really didn't want to leave it there.  We hadn't been planning to take the storm windows down, and Paul was reluctant to undertake that project, even though it would be the only way to clean it up.  What to do?  Leave it there to spoil the look of the freshly painted windows?  Or spend a lot more time on each window than we'd originally thought?

The answer came in a way I would have rathered it didn't:

Yes, that's a crack.  I applied to much force on the putty knife in trying to get out that old, stubborn, dried-out glazing, and I cracked the glass.  Argh.

Long story short, Paul climbed the ladder to take a look at the situation and began taking out the panes of glass.  Now I'm cleaning the windows (I still don't know what that stuff is, and it's awfully stubborn about coming off!), and he's being more particular about removing the old paint from the wooden frame.

It would seem that to do the job right we can't just paint the weathered wood; because of its age and condition we need a wood restoring product that will allow the paint to properly adhere for years to come.

It's not that I don't like hanging out with a paint scraper in the upper strata of the troposphere, but I'd really prefer to do the job right the first time and do something more enjoyable a second time.

Wouldn't you?

Keeping Warm

I didn't want to at first, but Paul thought we really should stretch plastic across the windows. There are storms on the outside, but the various cracks and holes in the stained glass pieces weren't doing us any favors. So on Wednesday, while Paul was working to put insulation back up in the bathroom ceiling, I climbed up the extension ladder countless times with the rolls of double sided tape and sheets of shrinkable plastic and managed to seal off four of the six windows.

I'm pretty satisfied with how they look. Time will tell whether or not this will help us keep our 40-year-old furnace heating costs down.

Northwest Windows

From left to right: The sheaf of wheat symbolizes the bread of the New Covenant, the open Bible exhorts us to make God's Word central to our lives, and the dove with the olive branch speaks of peace and happiness such as Noah would have experienced following the worldwide flood.

Of all the kinds of stained glass windows that could have been here, I consider myself blessed that these windows feature simple, flowing lines and symbolic representations rather than ornate motives and figurative depictions. They're beautiful, and for the most part, I wouldn't change a thing.

Southeast Windows

These are the stained glass windows on the southeast side. Clicking on a picture will enlarge it for looking at the detail.

The window on the left, closest to the front of the nave, features a bunch of grapes to communicate the wine of the New Covenant. The central window portrays a crown and a cross to remind us of Christ our King. The window on the right features an anchor, an ancient symbol of hope.

The windows were installed in 1910, and the glass itself is Tiffany-style glass, composed of many layers of color within each piece. Elliot commented that the glass in the main part of the outer windows looks like mother-of-pearl, and indeed, it does.

I'm sure there's quite a bit more to say about the glass and the style and period of the design, but I'd need to do more research first. When we are able to turn our attention to restoring them, we'll write more about what we learn.

Next: the windows on the northwest side.

Along the Sides

More (fuzzy) pictures of the nave. Elliot stayed in the shot to give an idea of the scale, but Aelsa joked that with how quickly he's been growing lately, perhaps there were better people for the job. She wasn't volunteering, however.

Regarding the scale of the windows and the space they fill, it's worth mentioning that the window trim is 10" wide. From the floor to the top of the window trim is 12.5'.

Stained glass window detail coming later.