New Windows Bring a 1990s Noblesville Colonial Back Into Focus

Built in the early 1990s, this two-story brick colonial in Noblesville has the kind of layout that's held up well for more than thirty years — a formal front with paired upstairs windows, a bay window over the stairwell landing and a comfortable back deck off the kitchen. What hadn't held up as well were the windows themselves. Locks had grown stiff, cranks stuck and in the primary bathroom the original glass wasn't tempered — a gap in a room where broken glass near a tub or shower is a real safety concern. 

The homeowner worked with our Pella team to replace seven window openings across the home: a kitchen window over the sink, two windows in the primary bathroom, a paired window set in the home office and a paired window set in a back bedroom. Every unit was custom-built to the home's existing openings, so the brick and trim around each window stayed untouched while everything behind the glass was brought up to date.

The window above the kitchen sink was swapped for an awning-style window — hinged at the top and opened outward with a crank. For a spot over a sink, where reaching across the countertop to wrestle with a stuck sash gets old fast, that outward-swinging design makes venting steam and cooking smells out a lot less of a chore. A fold-away crank handle tucks flush against the frame when it's not in use, so it stays out of the way while doing dishes.

Both windows in the primary bathroom were ordered with tempered glass. Tempered glass is designed to break into small, rounded pieces rather than sharp shards, which is exactly the kind of protection a window should have when it sits near a bathtub or shower.

None of the seven windows in this project were standard sizes off a shelf. Each one was measured and built to match the home's original 1993 openings, which meant the crew could replace the glass and frame without cutting into the surrounding brick or disturbing the exterior trim. For a brick home like this one, that's the difference between a clean window swap and a much bigger construction project.

Several of the new windows came with added sash lifts — small pull handles along the bottom of the lower sash that make it easier to get a grip and raise the window without straining against the frame. Paired with cam-action locks, which pull the sashes snugly together when they're closed, the day-to-day experience of opening, closing and locking these windows is noticeably smoother than it was with the original 1990s hardware.

Every new window includes a full InView™ screen, a finer-mesh screen designed to be less visually obtrusive than a standard screen. From inside, the view out stays clearer; from the yard or the street, the windows read as glass rather than screen. For a home with as many windows facing the front lawn as this one, that adds up to a noticeably cleaner look from the curb.

To keep the finished look consistent with the home's existing interior, the project included painted pine casing in a traditional colonial profile, the same style of trim already used throughout the house. Rather than leaving a visible seam between old woodwork and new, the window openings were finished to blend in with the rest of the room.

What started as a list of small daily frustrations turned into a coordinated update across the front and back of the house. Nothing about the home's structure changed. The brick openings, the trim lines, the overall shape of the house are exactly what they were in 1993. What changed is that every window in this project now opens the way it's supposed to, closes the way it's supposed to, and in the bathroom, is built with the kind of glass that room should have had from the start.