Why Medway
Two Medways, Two Kinds Of Windows
Medway Village along the Charles has the nineteenth century houses, with tall sashes, deep sills, and frames that have moved with the building. North and west of Route 126 the subdivisions went up mostly from the eighties onward, and they share a front elevation: a bay window off the living or dining room, a front door with sidelights, and a row of double-hungs upstairs.
A bay is where shutters earn their cost. Each of the three faces gets its own panel hinged to its own frame, so the louvers line up across the angle and the whole unit reads as one piece of millwork. Tilt the side panels down for privacy from the street and leave the center open to the yard. A shade on a bay hangs as three separate rectangles and never manages that.
The village houses want the smaller 2.5 inch louver to match their divided panes, and a stain on hardwood where the original trim is stained too, so the panels sit quietly beside it. Out in the newer colonials the 4.5 inch louver in white is the pick, since it suits bigger glass and open floor plans.
In either house, shutters are the treatment we would put money into if we owned the place, because they are a fixture. They stay when you sell, they appear in the listing, and they are still working long after a shade would have been replaced.
