Windows and Doors

 

Finally we get to buy something other than dirt and conduit! I guess we did get to buy the glass blocks... so that counts as something more fun than dirt. BUT these are way cooler to report than our glass blocks. For the past few months I have been buried in quotes. It has been crazy to keep track of everything and figure out what fits into our budget.

First up.... drum roll....

Doors

Originally we were planning to do wood fortress doors with speakeasy openings but were worried we wouldn't have enough light. It seemed like a better idea to pick out doors with glass in them so they double as windows and not need an additional storm door. I hate how storm doors work and look. Nice ones are expensive and all options block the view of the door you choose to some extent. By taking the part of the budget we planned for storm doors and lumping it in with the door itself we could get a super cool option. These are thermally broken and insulated iron doors that have glass operable windows AND they meet Mr. Dometastic's security criteria. They have been ordered and are scheduled to be delivered at the end of November. So excited to see them in person and install them!

Next up...

Windows

This was the hardest one and for the last 2 months I have been hunting for what we want and getting quotes. We initially planned to have 48" round operable windows. Back when we were drawing up plans and I was getting quotes I found a small localish company that made them and they were $1800 a window. Now the same window is almost $4000. This completely blew them out of our budget and I have no idea why they would have gone up that much in cost since 2016...but they have. The guy very nicely offered me a deal of $3500 a window (since I wanted 5) but that is still too much. Anyway....we pondered our design options and decided they really needed to at least have a rounded top. After too many quotes to mention (some as shockingly high as $9k a window) we finally found some that we can afford that operate the way we want and have an arched top. We really wanted round but arched will have to do.

These are inswing french casements without a center post. Ours will not have dividers in the glass and will come unfinished. Our plan is to use a black stain inside and out.

Last but certainly not least...

Big 18 foot sliding door system

This is the only one that didn't change from the original design. We picked this door out in 2016 and after two months of more quotes and searching we are still going with this door. Unfortunately we can't afford anything but their budget vinyl option but it is still hands down the best bang for our buck. Ours will be 6 panels with one "normal" door. They slide just like a normal slider along the track to rest in any venting position. Then if you want them all the way out of the way you unlock one side from the track and they pivot on one side and stack out of the way. There is a screen system that goes with it that we need here in southern New England to prevent pesky critters from entering. 

Ours will be similar to the 6 panel above only it will be a tan color vinyl frame.

(Not my preferred color but we will make it work!)

Can I stop here and say WINDOWS AND DOORS ARE FREAKING EXPENSIVE! When we designed the house we realized that it is actually much cheaper to put in just a few REALLY big windows than it is to put in an average (not a lot...just a normal number) of regular sized traditional ones. That's how we ended up with 5 big casement windows, 2 doors with windows, a huge slider system and 41 tiny glass block skylights.(the glass blocks are thermally broken "fancy" ones but don't really count because they were less than $20 each) I think most people would be shocked to count the number of windows they have in their current house and then look at how much it would cost to replace them. Then there are doors...if you have ever been door shopping at the orange big box store you know what I am talking about. To get a double exterior door there, even the cheapy super basic in stock ones with meh energy ratings and design, they are around $2k. Start looking at the better ones or the special order ones and the prices start climbing. 

In the end we are super excited about what we picked out and really look forward to installing them this winter. With a lot of research we were able to stay close to our original door and window budget.