by Gregory Ripps, Wilson County News
“We do it the way they used to do it.”
Doug Fehse was referring to having to separately rebuild and reframe each window in the front of the Wilson County Jailhouse Museum — the part of the building that once provided living quarters for the county sheriff and his family.
The work is part of ongoing efforts to restore the historical building in downtown Floresville.
The windows and areas around them have suffered from decades of water seepage. The old window frames and their casings were not only rotting and in generally bad shape, but all of them also were slightly different sizes.
Consequently, all the window frames have to be custom-made, according to Fehse, owner of Avanna’s, the Floresville business tackling the restoration work on the windows.
However, Fehse told the Wilson County News Oct. 27 that he found it more fun to “remake the old stuff’ than simply to install new windows. “Besides, making everything is faster than ordering,” he said. “We’re also doing all the work — windows, masonry, and painting — not having to wait for separate contractors to do different things.”
Fehse added that he has been donating personal time on weekends and in the evenings to get the window project completed. He plans to begin work on the historical building’s front door next….