May every window open to great possibility

Let's start with a super weird fact about me. I love windows. There I said it! So glad to finally get that off my chest....

I love windows because both sides are unique. I can look out into my front yard and see the community where I make memories in with my family. Someone can look in those same windows and see a family loving, playing and being together. I love that. So old windows are a favorite project of mine (and my mom's.) You can find old windows laying around all the time-especially in my city that is tearing down old houses to build new developements. I'd say to try to make friends with the site manager but they often wake me up at 7am on a Saturday after ensuring my child got no nap the day before so I don't find myself friendly around those folks. Instead, I use facebook marketplace to find a lot of my project pieces CHEAP. That's where these 2 old windows were from-I only payed $20 for 2. After a little research, I believe these windows are from the 1920s or 1930s based on the style and hardware.)

Now that I have these beauties, I let them sit in my basement for about 6 months. Just for fun aka waiting for inspiration to hit! Then it finally happened. Lightbulb moment!!!!! I am going to turn the windows into the frames for a gift I'm working on-4 family trees. I've done family trees for lots of people as gifts as it always turns out well. I make them myself with the help of Inkscape and lots of research and facebook stalking/googling. I love the idea of pairing generations of familes with old house windows that saw many families. I will do a seperate post on the family trees in the windows but now we get to start the window prep.

1. First thing, remove any old hardware. Most of the time, this can be done with a screwdriver or drill and A LOT of elbow grease. If you like the idea of it, keep it. These windows are heavy already so I'm going to take off the hardware just to lose the weight.

2. Next step-prepare a clean working surface. I quickly discovered these windows have around 6 layers of old paint so I am going to strip it down to whatever original surface I can find. To do this, I break out my favorite paint stripper. You can find this at Home Depot. The best part is that it smells like oranges so you can use inside with little/no ventilation and not die! Depending on the condition of the layers, I leave it set on for hours. You can start to see the paint want to come up (middle picture below) and you know you can get to work. Then scrape and scrape and scrape. Then sand and sand and sand. This process can take lots of time depending on who wins the stubborness battle-the windows or you. Example: I started this step on Feb. 5th and ended on the 11th for the first window alone. It took me a total of 13 Ryobi sanding batteries-for just ONE window. HAHAHAHA!

3. Now that you've sanded and given everything a good clean so 'no dust is left behind.'

4. White Paint time! I did the internal frames white. I am also doing a tree stencil in white to along with the tree theme. I have to admit that I just got into stenciling and already have a love/hate with it. I am an anxious person so when I pull that stencil up, I'm genuinely terrified if it will turn out. BUT the great part is, I can sand and re-do that part. See below, I have some mistakes that I sand and fix. It's nice to be able to correct mistakes on a medium with great detail like this one.

5. Now that I've let my stencil dry, I will be applying the stain. This is a great way to save some $ and use what you have. My husband built a pergola for our backyard last summer and we over-bought on stain. So we have 1 full can of extra stain aka what every project will be until the end of time. My favorite stain is actually the Miniwax gel stain series. I love the buildable color and I've done some beautiful ombre style stains that come out GORGEOUS. But for now, this stain will be perfect for this piece and will stand the test of time. Always apply your stain with rags. Tip-save all those gross t-shirts, workout pants, etc and cut them into rags or wear them while doing your projects. The fabrics for clothes make for a great stain apply and you don't have to go out and buy cloths. My children often terrorize their clothes and once they have grown out of their 'play clothes,' they make perfect rags!

6. Once you give the stain about 24 hours to dry, you can apply the coat of polyurethane. This one happens to be the one I like to use but the aisle of any home improvement store will have millions of choices for you. (Don't be afraid to tell the workers about your projects and ask for suggestions in products or application. They would rather talk to you than deal with other things in the store and they often give great ideas.) Apply the 'poly' in coats-according to the directions on the package. I typically do 2 coats for wall hangings and 3-4 for furniture because my children can and will ruin anything. Apply with a brush and put on a light first coat. If you see bubbles, that is not good, keep brushing over. Wait the correct time and then put on another coat. *As you can see, I chose to leave the sides kind of raw. I sanded down the tops to expose some wood then let the original white paint shine through the stain. I did poly the sides as well-making sure I got in all of the little creases.

7. Now that all the good stuff is done, all that's left is to scrape the windows of any excess paint on the glass. You can find a cheap window scraper at most grocery stores even. Please use a window scraper and nothing else. All that hard work can easily be destroyed with shattered glass so use the right tool. Give the glass a good cleaning.

8. Now admire your work! Can't wait to finish up the family trees and put them in! I will post a final picture when I give the gift-maybe it's for one of you!

Thought I'd show you my favorite art piece in my house that my mom made me and Eric years ago. I love it. She taught me how to use many of the tools I use today to make my projects-because she's a BADASS. Love you, Mom!