Thanks, Breezy! I have a feeling this will be a very long romance... Oldbat2be... installation (along with countertops) scheduled for next Friday! It really was such an easy addition to our stone order and was lovely enough without going over-the-top for our style of home. Would never had thought to do it if it weren't for GW -- would have probably ended up with a plain, wooden ledge. Christine... it's probably not that unusual, but for this total newbie, I knew I had to have one as soon as I saw rococogurl's. A stone window sill/ledge would look beautiful in a MB! And, btw, those aren't my hands! It belonged to the fabricator who not only is a 'he', but about twice my size! LOL! Good thing I didn't touch it b/c I'm not sure he would've been able to pry my hands off!

Absolutely sdello...the fact that it is freezing means that the shade is doing a really good job of blocking the heat from the house from getting to that window. akchicago, the two sheets of glass in your window is separated by a "spacer". This spacer can be made of several different materials, aluminum being one of the more common - especially if your windows were manufactured a few years ago or are of the "less expensive" variety made more recently...probably 80%, or more, commercial windows still use an aluminum spacer, while the number in residential windows has gone down dramatically in recent years. Aluminum is an acceptable material to use as an IGU (Insulating Glass Unit) spacer in certain environments and not so acceptable to use in others - because aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat. So to help avoid some of the heat loss conducted thru the spacer, some aluminum spacer manufacturers have come up with a "thermal break" concept that places a material that is not heat-conductive between the aluminum that is touching the outer glass and the aluminum that is touching the inner glass. This material in a sense "breaks" the thermal conductivity bond between the inner lite and the outer lite. Does it work? Yes, it does. Does it work as well as some of the newer spacer materials that are designed to be less thermally conductive? It works as well as some and not as good as others (how's that for a wishy-washy answer?)... The spacer material thermal conductivity argument is long and heated (actually, the pun was not intended) in the window industry. This thermal conductivity only affects the outer 2" or less of the glass. Inside of that 2" from the edge the glass will be the same temperature - in the same environment - no matter what spacer material is used. This is one reason why using U value is more important than using R value when judging a window's energy value, for example. But, along that 2" outer-edge of the window you can get condensation and moisture build-up because of that temperature difference caused by the spacerÂs thermal conductivity. It isnÂt just the spacer material, however. Using a LowE coating can make a big difference in the edge temperature, as can the choice of window sash material and even how the IGU is actually glazed into the sash as well.

You may have to get someone to do this for you, but it is an inexpensive test to check windows, electrical outlets etc. The following is a great summary from the web.... "Although many problem areas are obvious enough, keep in mind that some air leaks are not easily seen. One way to detect these air leaks is to conduct a "smoke test." To do this, you will need to close all the windows and doors in your home and turn off any combustion appliances, such as a furnace or water heater. Next you will need to turn on the kitchen and bathroom exhaust vents, which will create a negative pressure in your house that sucks outside air into your home through any crack or opening. Now you can check for air leaks by holding a lit incense stick close to the spaces around the edges of your home windows and doors, looking for a noticeable change in the smoke rising from the lit incense stick. If there is a air leak, the smoke will waiver and be drawn inwards by the outside air that is finding its way into your home. If the smoke remains undisturbed, then you can assume that there are no air leaks in that specific area." Make sure and check your electrical outlets and switches, you may surprise yourself.

As long as the two side windows match, you have symmetry and could do something entirely different with the center window; however, unless you want to make that the focal point of the room, "same" would be much better. Try to find sheet rock (or plywood) the same thickness as those pieces removed -- or use some slightly slightly thinner -- and attach those to both upper and lower areas. The bottom should be easy enough smooth with sheet rock mud over and around the replacement piece you add, especially if you've used a wood putty or caulk to fill in where the pieces meet and smoothed that and let it dry first. It is only if the thickness of your filler board it considerably less that you'd need to add extra thicknesses sheet rock mud to level the surfaces. Same applies to the top of the niche ... except that IF you need to add extra thicknesses of sheet rock mud to level that top area, you may need to apply it in thinner layers and allow each layer to dry and adhere to the surface before applying the next layer -- otherwise gravity could undo your work. All three of the windows next to the ceiling are so high that, unless you're unusually tall, there is no "view" thru them anyway ... just soffit. What you will see mostly is the upper part of the niche. If your repair of the upper part doesn't turn out as well as you'd like (or if you're worried it will not), then I'd think you could choose to add a thin piece of smooth sanded lauan (really thin plywood) to the top of each (3) upper window niche and finish around the edges of that. ... The difference in the (both smoothed) surfaces, once painted, would likely be unnoticed. ... Since the bottom of the window frame cannot be seen anyway (because of the height of the window and the depth of the window sill), the fact that there is a lauan depth less of top window frame visible above than is visible below should not even be noticed.