The building has only been painted twice since its construction in 1856-7. The first time was when it was first built and then again in 1865. After this point the building was periodically "oiled". With what kind of oil I am not sure of but there is a lot of evidence of it on the first floor sash and glass.
So the result is what you see today. Here is a current photo from a previous post.
This photo shows what kinds of problems that I have run across with these first batch of sash. The first thing I noticed was the variety of glazing putties that had been used over the years. Only one of the types was every painted, the first. Every subsequent re-glaze was not painted and all of it has cracked. Every type also showed how proficient or lack of proficiency the craftsman was at the application.
The second problem that I have run into is that a lot of the muntin tongues have been either worn completely away or have been scalped off so a larger piece of glass can be fit into the opening. The following two photos shows some of the repairs to the muntin tongues.
This close-up shows the angled glue joint I used when only a partial segment of the muntin was missing. Also the new sections were glued down into a small dado that I made with an 1/8" chisel. I left the new tongues higher than what they should be and once the glue was set-up I then planed them flush with the existing tongues.
These last two photos show the sash done and installed back in their openings. The exterior finish paint has not been applied yet because some decisions have to be made concerning color and whether or not the faux graining will be re-applied.
