Why Bedford
Renovated Capes And The Windows They Keep
The streets off Great Road filled in between the fifties and the seventies with capes and colonials, and a large share of those capes have been opened up since. Dormers added upstairs, a kitchen pushed out the back, a family room where the breezeway used to be. The renovation almost always keeps the original front windows, which are small, six over six, and set low under the eaves.
Those small panes are the reason we carry the 2.5 inch louver. It keeps the proportion right on a cape window where a 4.5 inch louver would look like it belongs on a different house. In the new addition out back, with its bigger glass, the 4.5 inch louver is the better fit. Mixing the two in one house is normal and it looks intentional.
Dormer windows bring their own problem. They sit in a short wall with the ceiling sloping in on both sides, and a panel that swings open has to clear that slope. Kevin checks the swing at the visit and decides between a hinged panel and a frame where only the louvers move.
Then there is the cold. A closed shutter adds a real thermal barrier on the north side of an old cape in January. The newer subdivision colonials near the Concord River have better glass, so there the appeal is the clean look and the fact that shutters convey with the house when you sell.
