Recently, I foolishly locked myself out of my new house and had no spare key available. A few weeks prior, I replaced a single pane in a hopper window, so figured breaking another one and replacing it later would be the quickest, cheapest, easiest option. What I failed to notice was that the original one I replaced was in the unfinished part of the basement, so it was easy to fit the replacement; the one I broke this time was in the finished part of the basement (because it was easier to crawl through). The problem is now that I’ve started trying to insert the replacement pane, I’m realizing the interior trim is blocking me from fitting the replacement glass into the frame. I’d really like to avoid removing and replacing the trim if possible – as this story demonstrates, I tend to overlook what seem like little details that end up making things much more difficult, and the trim looks nice as is so I do not want to accidentally ruin it.

Any ideas or tips? All I could think of was to use a more flexible plastic instead of glass which would allow me to bend it enough to squeeze it in, but I’m having a hard time finding the right material, if one even exists.