What’s Hiding Behind Your Shutters?

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If you have south-facing windows framed by stationary shutters, the non-operable kind that are screwed into the siding of your home, then you, too, might be curious to see what’s hiding behind them. Or not, depending on how brave you are 🙂 

Earlier this year we decided to restore our living room bow windows and part of the process was removing the shutters. We hadn’t had a chance to remove them in the years since we bought the house and I wanted to give them (and the siding) a good cleaning, and a fresh coat of paint. We’d seen some wasps circling the shutters over the years so we bought a spray that kills all wasps and hornets on contact. Getting stung is no fun.

We used this product from Amazon:

Once we applied the spray, we waited 48 hours and then carefully removed the shutters. This is what we found: 

An entire colony of insects (probably wasps and hornets, since the spray worked, although I have no way of knowing for sure) had built their nests into the back of the shutters and onto the siding. It was the perfect location: plenty of warm, southern light, stationary louvered shutters that no one ever moved, and plenty of room to build a village.

This discovery was unlike anything I’ve seen so far in our renovations, and I felt very sorry for these little guys. It wasn’t really their fault, they did what they were supposed to do, but this experience made me want to invest in operable shutters that we can open and shut periodically, and which will (hopefully) discourage other winged creatures from nesting behind them (and me having to hurt them). 

As for the bow windows, they are a favorite feature in our house but had been in desperate need for a refresh. The paint was chipping, the glazing had dried out, was cracked allover, and huge bits along the glass pane glazing were missing. Charming, right? 

Well, the process of sanding, fixing the trim and reglazing the glass on the bank of four casement windows took three times longer than I had initially planned, and the frames still need one more coat of paint before the weather turns too cold, but in the end it was worth it. I think. I particularly enjoyed working with the glazing putty- it feels a lot like play dough and when applied properly, it creates a watertight seal between the glass pane and the frame.

After watching this Youtube video, I felt confident enough to try my own version of glazing and it was quite fun (I forgot to take pictures!) I loved this glazing putty by DAP and this glazing knife, they worked pretty well together.

Over all, restoring these windows took about 6 weeks of working about an hour a day, but replacing them with new windows would have been 5k+ (pre-pandemic quote was 5k), so I’m happy. Also, I now know more about restoring old windows than I ever wanted to know, and I’ve acquired some fun new skills in the process. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if you ever need someone to reglaze your antique windows, I’m your gal 🙂