A Perfect Storm

I hate the phrase "A perfect storm", almost as much as I hate the phrase "A 100 Year Flood/Storm/Hurricane". It is the kind of hyperbole that news organizations use now that they are more interested in making money rather than disseminating the news.

But I digress.

There are a total of 48 storm windows on the House of 42 Doors. Last year I took off all of them and stacked them in the garage. I was always terrified that they would be broken en masse by a stray ball, a runaway bike or a simple stumble.

Excluding the cost of tools, I think it costs about $100 in materials to build a storm window. Or at least that's what I'm estimating right now. I'll know more by the end of the summer, as I have four to make. Considering what a storm windows costs, it takes a long time to recoup their cost, so it only makes sense to protect the 48 that I have.

Most of them are in good shape, but there are a few that are on their last legs. We lost one last spring when we took it down from one of the upstairs windows. It literally fell apart as my dad was carrying it to the garage. The corner was rotted out and held together by a metal L-bracket that the previous owner had screwed on.

I tried to repair all the storm windows last year, but in the end I was only able to repair those in the worst shape. There are still some that need to have putty applied and some that need a touch of paint here or there. Repairing storms meant laying them on a table in the garage, where once again they are exposed to all manner of potential disasters.

On top of the potential breakage, the storms took up enough of a garage stall that the wife was unable to park her car in the garage. Once the storms went up this winter, we were able to park the wife's car in the garage. Giving this space up every summer for storm windows is not an option.

For all of these reasons, I've spent the last few weeks building this.


It is a cabinet with a slot for each of our 48 (someday 52) storm windows. There's a place for our storm windows in the summer and our screens in the winter. The cabinet isn't completely done yet. I'd like to get it fully enclosed, with doors to really protect the windows, but that will come eventually. As I remind myself daily, the house is a marathon, not a sprint.