Back after a trip to Mexico to see one of our sons married. Maybe we’ll do a travel blog, too, one day. That would be a kick. But for now – windows.

Windows aren’t just holes in the wall. Even the one in the pic above (taken during a trip to Ireland), which actually is a hole in the wall, has a definite design element. And windows in your house make a huge statement, both inside and out. Here is what we started with in the SoMoToHo:

I need to confess a prejudice right here – I don’t like divided lights – you know, crisscrossing a window pane with pieces of wood or metal to form small sections. Historically, it made sense. It was a practical concession to the difficulties and expense of manufacturing large panes of glass. Today, however, there just isn’t any reason to do it and, in my opinion, plenty of reasons not to.  Pardon the plastic covering the second story windows – the picture was taken during painting. You can see how the divided lights break up the visual impact of the window spaces, making the whole front of the house look a bit frenetic. Debra and I both thought that we needed to calm things down by getting rid of them, and Debra believed that going with a dark bronze frame would give just the right contrast with the brick. Here’s how it changed, in stages:

Makes a much more pleasing statement, don’t you think?

We used Andersen windows, not the cheapest, for sure, but a brand we believe to be well worth the slight extra cost. The process could have been messy, as well as weird – they’re making big holes in your walls, after all – but the folks from Quarles Lumber who did our installation were great.

Here are a few more shots, some before and after:

The astute among you will recognize that, in some of these pics, a lot more than just the windows has changed. Transforming a house is not a linear process. Hopefully, any questions you have about the changes will be answered in time. It just means that you have to keep coming back!