The project I'm working on now was just made much more interesting by
the sins of some hack who decided to widen the old window's 69" rough
opening width for a new 72" triple casement by cutting the jack and
king studs off flush with the bottom of the header. The short stub
remnant of the king stud was left in place and a stud was nailed onto
the side of that.

In other words, the header is supported by one stud nailed to a piece
of blocking (ex-king stud) that's nailed to the end of the header. Not
surprisingly, this did not work very well and the sagging has caused
the casements to bind. The one end has dropped about 1/2". Luckily he
did this surgery on two window openings so I get to practice on one and
perfect my technique!

My question: has anyone else encountered a similar header-stretching
exercise, and if so, how did you handle it?

R