Starting a new project is fun and challenging on many fronts, but one of my favorite parts is developing intimacy with an older building, starting to discover its quirks and secrets.  We’ve just begun work on a magnificent Victorian in Boston; the front façade is voluptuously ornate, with no less than six different styles of window trim.  Notably odd, though, is the fact that two of the windows are missing — filled in with clapboards.   When our clients bought the house a few years ago, they thought this was pretty puzzling.  They assumed that someone with a limited respect for the house’s history had taken a shortcut during an earlier renovation, and they were hoping to restore the windows some day.   As…