It’s been over two weeks since I posted about a big old abandoned farmhouse that is destined to be demolished.  Jim and I have been salvaging interior woodwork, doors and windows for use in a future project.  The first floor has been salvaged, and we’re working on the second floor as time allows.  During the process, I became obsessed with the idea of uncovering the dining room’s bay window which had been covered up sometime in the 1960’s with a new — and surprisingly uninsulated — sheetrock partition containing a single double-hung window.  While I could envision what it had originally looked like, I wanted to actually see it.

The following photos show the demolition of the partition — and the drastic change that the re-emergence of the original bay made to the room’s character:

 

This is the wall before I began. Note that the baseboard is pieced together in sections… it was made from the baseboard inside the bay beyond the wall.

 

With the graphically-cool but damaged 1960’s curtains out of the way, the horizontality of the window is more evident. The proportions remind me of what happens when photographs sometimes are distorted and stretched on a computer.  The woodwork was painted a brown similar to the graining of the original woodwork.

 

Woodwork removed!

 

Sheetrock savagely attacked and removed!

 

Window removed! The curious rolling screen temporarily remains in a defeated slump.

 

With some minor modifications, the double-hung sash can be repurposed as a more normal-looking casement window when hinged vertically somewhere in the future.

 

More framing removed, but I forgot to bring a sledgehammer. The tall 2×4’s have since been salvaged, but I have not photographed the window since then. I will make an effort to post a final photo of this later.

 

This view shows how the outer casings and corner blocks were removed prior to building the partition.

 

Detail of wallpaper… likely from the 1940’s.

 

The room feels like it can breathe now, even if still a wreck. It must have been a wonderful window a century ago…

 

Two final glimpses of the bay window before it is stripped of its finery….

 

With more of the remaining partition studs out of the way the bay window can be more fully appreciated.

 

Just for fun (or at least my idea of fun) I placed the baseboards back into their original positions. It just felt like the right thing to do.

 

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