A Windows Journey

It's not often that BIG!NYC staff can trace the origins of a donation to its installation by a customer. However, on opening day at Gowanus, our new store featured a large number of high quality LePage doors and windows. The story of one particular window is told below.

In 2010, a custom order for 71 windows and 17 doors was placed with LePage Milling. This Quebec based company is known for its quality products and may be applauded for adopting green practices such as converting 100% wood waste into steam energy; utilizing paints, stains and sealers that have water-based formulas and are less harmful to the environment; selecting nearby vendors to reduce the amount of pollution generated in transport, and recycling paper waste, glass and aluminum scraps.

Upon fabrication, our window was shipped to the Hamptons in anticipation of spending a long life overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, our window arrived in the U.S. only to learn that the design had been rejected and that it was destined for a storage container. Crowded among many other doors and windows, our window rested quietly for over a year.

In the fall of 2011, a friend of BIG!NYC brokered the donation of the LePage order. Two containers arrived at the Gowanus store during renovation. An enthusiastic and efficient group of trainees, enrolled in a program run by Non-Traditional Employment for Women, unloaded these containers on their day scheduled to get on the job experience with BIG!NYC. They put into practice the teamwork and  proper lifting and moving skills learned in the classroom. Our window now awaited the opening of the store for the chance to be adopted into a new building project.

In late January, that chance arrived! A couple from Connecticut was in search of a large window to open up the second floor of their home to natural light. After taking measurements one weekend, they returned to purchase a 75 by 36 in. window, at a savings of over half it's original retail value. In February, our friends came back and shared the before and after photos. 

We learned that our window will live happily ever after. It has tranformed a dark room into an open, airy room that inspires writing projects as well as serves as a portal looking out upon a lovely wooded area on the other.

View more pictures of the window renovation on our website.