The Joys of Homeownership

[indysteel]

When my DH and I bought our home, we knew it needed new windows. Twenty-five of them. The house was built in 1928 and few of the windows are even functional anymore in that they don't open. We got our first estimate today.

$19,000.



I anticipated $15k, so while the number isn't a total shock, it's still a lot to swallow. I'll be interested to see what our other estimates look like and, of course, what the final bill will be.

I keep thinking how nice it will be to have windows that look nice, actually open and are energy efficient. I doubt it'll be $19k worth of nice, however.

[Roadtrip]

Ouch.. I have an older, about that same age, with old windows... just not as many of them. What kind of windows are they replacing with? Wood or vinyl?

Good luck with other bids. Hopefully it will be less then the 19k.

[Becky]

Sounds about right... We did half as many 3 years ago, to the tune of $7k. Our heating oil bill plummeted and the whole house is so much quieter now, so it's been well worth it.

Don't forget about the tax credits that are available this year... The tax credit made our bill a lot easier to swallow.

[indysteel]

Roadtrip, I think we're considering windows that are vinyl on their exterior side and wood on the interior side. Our existing windows are a "Prairie" style, and we'd really like to retain that look, which I assume costs a bit more.

Oh well; I'm trying to be Zen about this (the state of mind, not the TE member ). I learned with my first home that while things like a new roof aren't "fun," they provide a tremendous peace of mind. We're very aggressive savers, so we have that going for us, too.

[Selkie]

We had our windows replaced in April and paid about that much (house was built in 1940 and the old windows were vinyl "gas company" specials). The new windows are wood -- aluminum clad outside and pre-treated wood inside, so we had to only paint the inside. We got casement style, with I love, but no grids so it's just clear glass. Two windows are art glass in a mission style (were extra) and they are functioning casement windows. Bathroom window is awning style with frosted glass for privacy. It was worth every penny, not only in terms of energy savings but also noise reduction. And don't forget the TAX CREDIT!!! Don't go cheap on the windows---they are an investment and good windows will increase the resale value of your home. One tip: make sure whoever installs them is experienced and skilled.

[Irulan]

See if you can get any energy credits from your local utility... we got 30% back on the cost of our windows. If we had paid for the install, it would have been a credit on both materials AND labor.

We are doing vinyl double panes with high E glass. It does make a huge difference in certain rooms. The funny thing is, the more energy efficiency improvements we do, the more we realize that the house has so many leaks, poorly insulated areas and so on. DH says that no house can be airtight.

More and more, I am grateful that DH is a pretty handy dude. We do all our own remodeling, one project at a time. Our only costs are materials. Mostly, we are just too cheap to choke down contractor costs on things we have the skills to do. The time frame is different of course. We've done the windows three or four at a time, usually over a weekend, and then a season or year later we do some more. We only have the two that require renting scaffolding to do. Granted, it's not all done at once, but the thousands of dollars we aren't paying someone else we get to use for fun stuff.

While some home projects require a lot of skill, a whole lot don't, they just require some time. As for know how, there's a lot of info online.

[Irulan]

One tip: make sure whoever installs them is experienced and skilled.

this made me laugh as I just wrote up this big thing about how we do everything ourselves. There are a lot of lousy contractors out there so be sure to get good referrals. I know for a fact that DH pays way more attention to detail and doing things right than some guys so I have no doubts that he's doing the job right. I do know how lucky I am, though!***


***I never realized how lucky until I found out that a relative won't even do any painting for fear of screwing things up.