Dear Arlosmom, I spoke to my carpenter and I looked at my pulleys. My pulleys are smoothly rounded out, not grooved. Carpenter says he has never come across a grooved pulley and has still changed out cords to chains, as he did on mine. He says that sash cords are standard 3/8" and he replaced mine with 3/8" chain. If 3/8 is not available to you, you can go a little larger, but stay under 1/2". At 1/2" they are too fat to work well in the pulley. As far as how to attach chain to weight, there is a loop on the top of the weight. You don't need any special hardware. His method with mine was to put the chain through the loop and hook the chain back onto itself by opening up a link and hooking it back onto another link then closing the link back up. He said depending on size of your weight's loop, you might use a wire if the chain won't go through. He advised that you must see to it that your pulleys are working smoothly. If they are gunked up with paint, be sure to scrape them so that they function well and don't rub on any window parts, because a smooth-working pulley is key to smooth-working windows. Any other questions, feel free to ask! Best, FW

Do you have a picture of it? Also, what do people think about it? I was thinking about getting this with the Marvin Ultimate (MTO). Thanks, Steve

Nshepp, I originally was going with solar shades in the open concept space, but ended up having 3m film applied on those windows and doors. This would protect floors and furniture, as well as, heat in the summer months. You can’t see in during the day, but with lights on at night you can. But we have a lot of privacy anyway. I did go with dark charcoal shades in the bedrooms. I have been very happy with my decision.

I'm not a careless person. I don't smoke, I always wear my seat belt, and I look both ways twice. But I live in a house of the same vintage as yours, and I've worked on the windows without any concern at all. Lead is nasty stuff and nothing to fool with, especially when you have a young'un around, but that's just not a really huge area of paint. And the bulk of the dusty work is going to be done offsite, right? If you do this yourself, I don't think you need drastic measures. Take normal precautions, use a HEPA vacuum for the dust or wipe it up with damp rags, and don't sweep or blow dust around, ever. Asbestos in sash cord? That's a new one on me. I've changed many and never gave a thought to it. Actually, I'm having trouble imagining why the manufacturers would go to the expense of adding asbestos to something like that, but industry did seem to find a lot of uses for that handy mineral. I think a little proportion is useful here. The people who got asbestosis were the ones who worked with it 40 hours a week, manufacturing asbestos products and, to some extent, installing them. I'd never advocate deliberately breathing asbestos fibers. But despite all the hysterical media fearmongering, as a homeowner, your risk is very slight. You're more likely to get sick from stress over worrying about asbestos than you are from asbestos itself.