Finally got that stuck window open after 3 years... accidentally

We've got this old double hung window in the kitchen that's been painted shut since before we moved in. I tried everything - putty knife, heat gun, even that window zipper tool. Nothing budged. Yesterday my kid threw a bouncy ball that somehow wedged between the sashes and I yanked it out. The whole window slid right open. Turns out all those years I was pushing on the wrong part. Has anyone else found a weird fix like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorh811mo agoMost Upvoted

Wow, a bouncy ball of all things. I can't believe that's what finally did it after all those years of brute force and tools. That's one of those stories you tell at dinner parties for the rest of your life. I bet you felt pretty silly when you realized you were pushing on the wrong part the whole time. But hey, at least you got it open, even if it took a kid's toy to figure it out.

riley_wood841mo ago

Man, that's wild! It reminds me of something that happened to my buddy Dave last year. He had this old stuck window in his house that wouldn't budge for like three years. He tried crowbars, WD-40, even hitting it with a hammer. One day his kid dropped a bouncy ball near the window and it rolled under the sill. When he reached down to grab it, he noticed a little latch he'd never seen before. He flipped it and the window slid open like butter. He felt so dumb but also relieved. Sometimes the simplest things win the day.

knight.felix1mo ago

Yo that's honestly hilarious but also super relatable. I swear half the time the answer is right in front of us and we just overthink everything. I've done similar stuff with my car before, messed with the battery for hours only to realize the hood latch was just stuck on a piece of plastic. It's like our brains skip the simple fix and go straight to the hard way. Dave must have felt like a genius and a fool at the same time when he saw that latch.