jasonmi7: on a casement window, the screens are actually on the inside of the house. With the retractable option, you don't have to look at screens all the time when your windows are shut (which is the majority of the time). Maybe it's just a personal preference, but I've never had casement windows, so having screens on the inside is a bit odd to me - so I'm very excited about the retractable option!

a) Fix the storms so that they don't let any air in. You could caulk them in permenently on the top and sides (never caulk the bottom of storms) or fit some good weatherstripping. There is a pile type (fuzzy) weatherstrip that would work well here, and it's available in self-stick, but it has to be clean dry & warm to adhere. It's also made to slip into a thin saw kerf cut into the edge of the storms, but that's a pro install detail. b) Fix the weatherstripping situation on the french windows themselves. Repair whatever system is already there, or have it retrofitted with a good setup, which can be either vinyl or metal, depending on the budget. c) Have a storm panel added to the outside of the casements. This could be either glass (in a thin metal frame) attached with screws or buttons, or plexiglass screwed into the sash and sealed with caulk. If the windows face south or get lots of sun exposure, the permanent install is not recommended, as the summer heat buildup will damage the leaded glass. OR d) have the leading redone so the panes are once again tight and weatherproof as they were originally. Time takes its toll on lead and the "cement" used to fill in and strengthen the assembly. Casey

Hi Sarabr. These days I live in a 192Os Tudorbethan apartment full of mahogany furniture & antique fabrics, but in 1978 I moved into my very first post-college place, a 194O Streamlined Moderne apartment, where the floors were terrazzo, the stair rails were Monel metal and the windows were either glass block or steel casemements. In fact. those steel casements--at 12 feet, they were the widest windows in Peoria--were the reason I rented the apartment in the first place. Unfortunately, I signed the lease during a particulary mild week in late October, and within a month, I was shivering & miserable because the rusted windows wouldn't close all the way and the half-inch gaps between the corroded frames & the corroded windows turned my apartment into a howling, screaming wind tunnel. Thank heaven for steam heat. Somehow, I survived the winter, but when it warmed up in the spring I knew I had to do something. Unfortunately, my landlord didn't think my measly $175 per month rent justified his spending the time & money to restore my beautiful but rusty windows. That was the bad news, The good news was he was even too cheap to replace them with lumberyard double-hungs, the way another slumlord had destroyed the beauty of the streamline apartments across town. When he suggested stapling plastic over my windows, I knew the guy was insane. My walls were solid concrete. So, since I loved my place, and I loved my windows, I rehabbed them mmyself. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing and all my useless pals said I was crazy for putting my time & money on somebody else's building, but I was determined to bring the place back to the glamour it had had when it was new, and besides, what did my friends know? They had plaid couches, for pete's sake. Anyway, it was mostly just a matter of getting rid of a few decades worth of accumulated paint layers and/or surface rust, and also the windblown grit that had built up and hardened in the windows' frames and made it impossible to close them all the way. So, using a heavy duty scraper, a grinder attachment for my Buck Rogers-style drill, some wire brushes, a few cans of WD-40 & glazing compound black Rustoleum, I managed to get all but one of my casements working smoothly again, and when I finally got that one closed, I screwed it shut. When I was done, my windows looked good as new. Yes, it was a huge pain, and because I was a stupid kid, I probably lost a bunch of IQ points from breathing lead-paint dust without a mask, but--what was I saying?--the end result was worth it. Installing new wood casements would have been simpler, but they would have also been a lot more expensive than muddling through with my old windows, and more inmportantly, the thick sections of the wooden frames would have destroyed the sleek horizontal lines of the originals. As it turned out, the windows ended up looking so good that when I moved out, my landlord more than doubled the rent for the next tenant, a small ad agency, and they liked the place & the windows so much they not only stayed for 2O years, they kept my gray-&-black decor intact and ordered new furniture to match. So sure, you can replace your windows with wood, or you can spend a little more and have them restored to like-new condition, but if you do it right, you can probably restore most of them yourself. You may have to replace a few on the rear of your place, so that they can serve as replacement parts, but even if it's a job that turns out to be beyond your skills, at least give it a thought. Regards, MAGNAVERDE.

George: Your original steel windows are a vanishing resource. If you make an effort to save them, and not toss them in the landfill, you will be doing your old house a very big favor. You mention they are cold. Insulation is created with stable air. When you pair a single pane window with a well fitting storm, you create inches of stable air. The resulting R-value meets or exceed that of even high end replacement windows with insulated glass. (I know this not just from the studies. I have a few new construction windows in my 1959 house and they are noticably colder than the original windows with storms.) Also, you would not need insulated glass if you were to have custom storms built. I know of two companies in the Northeast who specialize in steel window restoration, one in Delaware (Window Pro)and one in Peekskill, NY (Seekircher). I'm sure there are others around the country. Best of luck, and I hope you will give your beautiful old windows a shot.