Low E Vinyl Window from Lowes

Thereabouts nine or so years ago, a couple of kids on the next street put a golf ball through the original single pane plate glass window in the front of my Dallas house.  I didn't notice the hole when I was in the house (wasn't cold yet) but one day soon after the event, I was backing out of the drive and there it was as big as life!  I found the golf ball inside on the living room floor.

I called the insurance company to see what if anything they could do.  Did you know that most insurance policies DON'T cover glass?  BUT.....my policy would cover to have the carpet replaced because of the glass shards!  Well, heck!  I could do that myself with a vacuum.   I passed on their generous offer.  What I probably could have done was to have them give me cash for the carpet and then spend it on the windows.  Eh....too much trouble!

Anyway, after much consideration I replaced the entire front window set up myself with three single hung, dual pane, low E, vinyl windows.  You'd never know it originally had a plate glass window in there!  And once fully installed and sealed, I could really feel the difference in insulated performance over old style single pane aluminum framed glass.  I was impressed.  So much so, I'm having the same windows installed on this house.  Lowes came out today to take measurements and check things out.

The Great Room
For the Great Room, replacements will cover the two floor to ceiling picture windows between the two sliding glass doors, the sliding glass doors themselves and finally, a completely new 3'x5' picture window in the new kitchen.  The Lowes installer indicated all of the floor framing would have to be replaced since there was evidence of wood rot.  I had been thinking about it anyway, I opted to go ahead and have the two center windows shortened by about 20" with new taller framing underneath.  The only view I'd be losing is that of the concrete patio so no harm, no foul.  

I also asked for a secondary estimate for the installation of outward opening french doors in-lieu of sliding glass doors.  My concern there is that I might be losing a lot of glass area due to the wider door frames.  If it's not a killer amount, I'll give he french doors serious thought.

The Bedrooms
In the bedrooms, to reclaim some wall space (and because I have a thing about placing furniture directly in front of a window), I'm having shorter single hung windows installed.

I'll cover the newly framed walls below each window and the ones in the Great Room with a stack stoned veneer down to the foundation.

I'll get word of the damages later this week!  I can hardly wait.....