I knew you couldn’t possibly be afraid.

It’s so crazy how different New York landlords are verses other places. If you were to try and fix something in Minneapolis without a landlords permission you’d probably lose some of your deposit, even if it made it awesomer in the long term.

You will totally make it right, and better. You are such a pro.

Hahahaha “fast talking midwestern mumbler.” I hadn’t seen that one!

Yeah, I’m not *too* afraid, I just want to make sure I have enough time for so we don’t have a missing bathroom window for like 3 weeks. Both the top and bottom sash are going to need a LOT of work and repair (top window glass is completely painted over and will need to be stripped, both windows and frame are all goopy with old paint and don’t open, etc. etc. etc.). Added to that is that the room was renovated probably in the 90s, and the new drywall is flush with the old trim pieces, so removing the front trim is going to be…tricky. The whole set-up is in such terrible condition, I really hope I can make it right!

At least we have a window, though. My downstairs neighbors with the same apt layout have had a piece of plywood since theirs broke and the landlords still haven’t fixed it! The old tenants broke it. They moved out 6 years ago…

Oh no Cam! I bet that is the sort of thing you could find at the Reuse center if you ever needed a new one. They do look kind of strange though.

So true, totally Lol’d at the hobby comment.

I’m sure I would’ve waited another two years if the trim was painted shut on the inside. That old paint is like glue.

You should do it! I think it took me so long because I was just building up the nerve to tackle it. You know, I didn’t want to go an destroy my window. That is always my fear that whatever I touch I will accidentally ruin and I won’t know how to make it better again.

Really though, it’s not bad. There is a few you tube videos that I watched too. I’m guessing you’ve probably run across them already, but just in case you haven’t here they are:

This crazy old dude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsvwtWZR-R4

This fast talking midwestern mumbler (cool clarinet sound track too):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yviFClpnJwg

And of course the This Old House link I mentioned in the post.

I would say that you could easily tackle this, but I wouldn’t encourage it if the trim around the sash was covered in layers and layers of paint – you wouldn’t want to pry the trim out and then later have it marred up, it just seems like more work than it’s worth for a tenant.

But if you envision the trim being easy to remove then I would say go for it, then you can use that rolling pin for making pies. After you remove the trim the rest is really quite easy, mine was just such a pain because of the weather stripping.

I’ve seen Anna’s post before, I’ll have to go read it again, I can’t quite remember how she approached it.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Thanks so much. Your compliments made my day.

I’m glad you found the blog, hope to see you around again!