Functionality or Charm

What to do? What to do? Our home was built in the mid twenties. It is a stone house with metal, single pane windows. The windows give the house a certain look. The windows are very energy inefficient. Drafty, if you will. Hubby repairs and babies them along.

That said, I LoVe them. Charm and all, you know.

They swing open and pictured below is Hawley's treat window, or taptaptap, "IleftbutI forgotsomethingcanyougetformemom?" window. We use this swinging window daily.

I pulled up the shade in our bedroom this morning and there in my sweet poppy patch is the first one, a lone poppy! She is very pretty with the black grids. I'd miss that.

That said, when I snap up the shade the window is foggy, wet and steamed up. Not so nice.

Here is the problem, finally, getting to the issue here. The original windows were a dark bronze color. Over the years the outside grids were painted white and the inside grids were painted black. Vinyl window don't come that way. If we get black on the outside the house trim will need to be changed. I don't want to give up the black or dark grid on the inside. They don't come with black on the inside of the window. I love that look.


Hubby and I like to restore back to the original look if possible. We are collecting bids and ideas. What do you think? Remember, we aren't made of money, we want charm, we like the casement style so they swing open and then there's the addition. If we add a new master bedroom and bathroom it gets even more complicated. The window size then has to meet code. I don't want huge windows because the rest of the house doesn't have huge windows.

Many of you come to the blog and are easily entertained for a few minutes in the morning. Well, that party is over! Get on your thinking caps and help me!