Window Weights:
Liz: This will be a two part writing: Part One: You mentioned that your window weights had fallen down under the house. This indicates to me that you have open wall construction, in other words, there is no plate under the studs and you can look right into the attic from under the house. If this is the case, I would strongly recommend that the bottom of all such walls be capped using either plywood or sheet metal. I'm not sure why houses were ever constructed in this manner but every wall is a very flammable chimney and if a fire starts under a house so constructed the resulting draft provided by the open area between the studs will insure that burn time is at a minimum. Part Two: A fairly good memory when coupled with a fertile imagination can at times become a problem, and this is one of those times. I can't remember whether I saw or dreamed up the idea of a device that would replace window weights. The device I'm thinking of would fit where the existing pulley for the weights is now and consisted of a small drum with either a small steel cable of flat metal band that was attached to the window sash. There was a coil spring (like a clock spring) inside the drum and a key or crank was used to adjust the tension after installation so that the weight of the window was in balance and would stay up without the proverbial stick. If this was something I dreamed up when confronted with the same problem, and someone reading this decides to build and market the device, I want to be cut in for a share. Put I'm almost certain I saw this somewhere. Dale