New Windows

After more than a year of anticipation, here they are

The first I learned of my local landlord’s intention of changing the windows in my apartment was last year, when I received a letter asking me to vote on whether or not to get them replaced.

The Barracksfield Estate has been in private hands since the last century. Here’s a history of Hightown Barracks, the military owners of much of what is now private land.

Hightown Barracks | Military Wiki | Fandom

I moved in here twenty years ago, on 2004-08-27. These flats have been here since before the 1990s.

In all that time, more than thirty years, going on for fifty, the flats had kept the original windows, including a large bay window in what is, for most people, the living room.

The problem was, so the letter went, those bay windows were mould traps. Which, at the time, surprised me, as I thought that it had just been my window which had been attracting black mould in the corners.

But as it turned out, all the bay windows had been of the same design, one which must have been pretty cheap, and which may have had loose joints, with gaps for mould spores to grow through.

So, the vote went, did we want to keep these old windows, or get new ones fitted after decades?

And the vote seemed pretty resounding - practically everybody wanted to get shot of the fungus traps.

Now this news came out, just about this time last year - September 2023. In the follow-up letter, they said there’d be a time to replace the windows as early as February 2024.

They were a bit early. It took them till today, 2024-09-23, just after the Autumnal Equinox, to finally get the windows replaced.

It took them about 3.5 hours, tops.

Here are the new windows.