A Rose Is a Rose...

Yesterday we got the rose window put back in the 2nd-floor bathroom.

Actually, the glass itself came back from the glass shop a few weeks ago, but it's been sitting downstairs waiting for the installers. In the meantime, we've had a scenic piece of plywood blocking our bathroom window for, oh, about two months now. Yesterday the plywood finally came down and the window went back in. (The tape is not part of the design; that's just there for safety and I've been too lazy to remove it.)

The lower half of the window is glazed with "glue chip" glass, so named because it used to be made by pouring glue onto clear glass, letting it set up, and then chipping it off. The glue would splinter off irregularly sized slivers of glass, leaving a random pattern not unlike that of frost condensation or wispy vines. Anyway, we like the look of it, and it's historically accurate.

This marks the first time in many years that this window has worked. The top was stuck open when we moved in, and the previous owners clearly hadn't shut it for many years before that. Since the bathroom had no fan or other ventilation, this window was more-or-less permanently fixed open. It. Was. Breezy. And cold.

In fact, the bottom two-thirds of the window was hidden behind a really ugly wall mirror, with only the rose pattern peeking out from the top. You can imagine the sort of crud that collected in the gap behind the mirror and the glass.

Now we've re-hung it with the original sash weights in place, on new cord. I pulled off, stripped, and lubricated the original metal sash pulleys. We found some modern replacements, but decided not to use them. Oh, and we stripped off several layers of paint, including one bright purple layer! Yikes. At least it was only painted purple on the inside. We're thinking it probably dated from the 1960s. I don't think they make paint that color anymore.