Decisions, decisions

2-panes

The first big decision was choosing new windows and doors. The existing cottage had been previously renovated with modern hardwood windows and a rather quaint front door (all of 153mm tall!). We wanted to revert to a more traditional window design but which tradition? It was difficult to gauge the age of the original house, before the famine certainly but anywhere between two and four hundred years old. The 'original' windows might have been casement or sash, and might have had different sized panes of glass depending on age and affordability.


We drew up two options, based on Georgian 

9-pane option

and Victorian sash designs we'd seen in other cottages. In the end we chose the simpler four-pane version. This was confirmed when we discovered the same basic design in an old photo of an original window uncovered by the previous owner.

When it came to replacing the doors we wanted to emphasise the cross-facing openings of front and back, typical of the Connaught vernacular long house. We chose to open rather than close off the rotten back door by adding a glazed French door there (which would allow more natural light into the main room and maintain easy access to a small courtyard behind the house).

4-pane option

Sourcing the sash windows proved more difficult than expected and we spent a long time corresponding with different companies over design details, materials, prices and delivery times. We had to compromise a little on the fine detail of the joinery to get low energy double glazed panes into the kind of traditional profile frames we wanted, at a price we could afford. We had to compromise by a few millimetres on the glazing bars but we achieved a high quality product at a good price in the end.

New windows fitted