Dining Room and Bay Window Restoration

Deborah & William Hillyard

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There is a large bay window in the formal Dining room, to the right hand (East) side of the house. We decided to have it jacked-up before installing the new windows as it had sunk a few inches. This was due to it having no proper foundation. They had just rested it on some rocks that were resting on the ground!

Also, water had found its way into the roof of the bay and down the studs between the windows and rotted them from the inside, as shown in the picture on the right. Thus, the whole lot had to be jacked-up, supported and rebuilt. This was beyond me, so we used a local carpenter, who did a very nice job for us. It also gave us the opportunity to add insulation.

The finished product, with the new windows installed. Still not perfectly square (look closely in the picture to the left at the top and bottom of the right hand window), but a huge improvement.

Winter was approaching when this job was completed, so I rushed to get it primed and painted before the bad weather set in. Unfortunately, I used an interior primer by mistake, and by the next Spring, most of the paint was peeling off. I had to scrape it, sand it and completely re-do it. I am very, very careful to check paint cans now!

There was no such thing as pressure treated wood in those days, so it just rotted away. In the process, much of the wooden structure behind the shingles needed replacing; including much of the interior plaster work.

We replaced all the internal wood with pressure treated lumber. That should last a good few years! We also replaced the facia above the windows and all the moldings.