CH: Day 13
Yesterday.
Today.
Today.
This is the Cross House. Note how the window sill extends wider than the vertical trim. Ditto for the upper horizontal trim. Note how the little crown on top, and the cap piece, also extend wider. This is all normal for windows of the era.
On the carriage house though when vinyl siding was installed the wider bits were hacked off. Oh, the horror.
I do not have a solution for the sill. Yes, I could glue extensions on but these will not last. The new top trim is wider though, and I will recreate the original width of the crown and cap. An imperfect solution but MUCH improved.
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My old Victorian was butchered in a similar way – ears on windowsills cut off, brackets and gingerbread trim removed, so metal siding could be easily installed, even right over all the window casings, totally destroying the architectural integrity. The good part though, was that what was left, the shiplap siding, fish scale shingles, casings, etc. were all protected from the weather for 60 years. When I removed ( and recycled ) all the steel siding, there was little damage to what had been underneath. For the sills, I ended up using old growth cedar to add the missing ears,; glued, nailed, and epoxied in place. I expect it to last another 133 years. The half dozen sills that were too cracked ( from lack of paint & maintenance ) to fix, I replaced with new old growth 2×8 cedar that I milled to match. This summer is, I hope, the last of 5 spent restoring the exterior, which will let the old girl sing like she never has before, in 9 glorious colors!
This is why I never had vinyl or any other siding installed on my wooden house. They wanted to cut off all of the trim that gave my house character. I would rather paint every decade than bastardize my house.
Aside from installing an entirely new sill not much you can do. But you can do the top.
The right side siding sure did to up fast. Pretty soon that wall will be done or as done as it will be for now.