[Reneehsm]

Hi all I have been doing research into this and it seems that I just get more confused as I go.

We have a 21 year old stucco home that has single pained crappy windows right now and we are hoping to start with one room at a time as I am going to paint them, make curtains and hubby is going to do closet doors and Hopefully windows. Of course I will help where and when needed.
We couldn't decide where to start so we are going to start in one of the extra rooms and go from there. There is lots of things we want to do and we would like to do as much as we can ourselves so that we can get more done, meaning having the money to do more by doing it ourselves and we enjoy it too.

Anyway our problem is we have been getting lots of advise from Everyone of course and we really and truly don't understand it all.
We know there are two kinds of windows the new installation which we would have to tear out the whole thing and put a totally new one in and redo have to redo the stucco outside and we would really prefer not to have to do this as I read it is not good to mess with stucco and the original seal. Plus we'd diffenently probably have to hire someone for this and Hope they did a really good job. So very cautious of this one.

There there is the replacement and /or retrofitted windows and with these at this point we aren't even sure if they are the same or different.
We don't fully understand how these work.
I have been reading that you shouldn't have to tear up existing trim such as the stucco etc and that they fit into the existing frame from our old windows.
But call use dumb but we just don't understand this and would really appreciate any help we can get on this.
Any advise is Truly Appreciated
Any suggestions for really good books , DVDS or VHS on how to do it etc.
Or really good websites on it.
Just anything at all would help.

We were priced at Lowe's $198 per window which was a double hung, full screen, double paned ,LEO (I think that's right) vinyl window.
We have aluminum ones in there now so would this work?

Also before I got registered I found a few post that talked about having the windows installed and they were saying about $300 per window was this total for window and installation or what?

We are in the Panhandle of FL so don't know if any of you are in our area or not. But if so any experiences doing this or having someone do it would be Appreciated.

I haven't called to see about any one to install them yet as we really thought it would be out rageous plus we really don't want to do them all at once. We want to do a little at a time so we are getting something done but not going over board in debt.

We are good at doing stuff ourselves and hubby is really good as a handy man -jack of all trades and me the loving and loyal assistant to all so as long as we understand what we are doing or have to do we can pretty much do anything. At least so far! ; )

So I am hoping to get some info here so that we can figure out if we can do this on our own , any place to get good reliable basic info we can understand
On the whole process etc. So we can decide if we should try to tackle this ourselves or just wait longer.

We are totally lost on this one but everything I am reading makes it sound like it should be easy so I don't know.

Thanks to everyone in advance
I look forward to hearing everything you all have to say and suggest
Thanks
Renee

[skiberger]

I'm going to take a guess that you have aluminum windows and your house is a cinder block house covered by stucco? The reason I ask is the windows you have now maybe built into the masonry and the whole window unit may need removing before another window can be installed.

Give me some more info on the type of house and existing windows (alum, wood, sliding, double hung, casement, awning) you have.

[Reneehsm]

Hi I just wanted to write back real quick.

Our house if a stucco on a wood frame, no cider blocks.
We have single hung aluminum windows single pane.
We think we already have about 4 replacement windows as they are newer and not the same as the others which we can tell are probably original due the to the locks on them.
The replacements are also aluminum single hung single pane too so they would have to go also.
It also looks like we have a replacement sliding door.

This house we are told actually sat vaccant for a few years before the last owners bought it and some kids got in and tore it up breaking windows and different things like that. Hence the newer different windows.

The newer looking windows have actually have another channel where the window slides up where the older ones do not and the frames look a little wider. This is why we think they are replacement ones.
Not sure though could just be the difference between the 80s and 2000 style don't know.

Our stucco windows are not flat they angle out hubby says so that water will run off.
I don't know if this will effect anything or not.

But when I was trying to figure out which one we needed retrofit or replacement someone said this makes a difference. Still not totally clear which one we need.

We are looking for double pane and probably lowE probably vinyl although some of the stuff I am reading makes me a little worried about vinyl.
Any pros and cons to this?

We are trying to learn as much as we can before we get started on this as we want to make sure we don't bite off more than we can chew so to speak.

We are actually in the Panhandle of FL don't know if I mentioned this in my first post or not.
We got some good info on good quality windows but this guy was in CA and they don't have them around us .

We don't want the BEST so to speak as we don't want to pay that much, we don't know how long we will be here hubby talks 10 years but then who knows right. We might just stay here who knows for sure.

Anyway we want a good reliable brand for a decent price.
So if you know of any in the FL area we would appreciate you telling us a few.

We figure if they ended up being more than what we expect we can replace a couple at a time so that we can pay for it as we go.

Also if you could answer any questions I had in my previous post I would be most Grateful.

Just any info at all you can give us would be Appreciated as this will put us a little closer to our goal for info right now.

I am going to purchase some DVDs on how to replacement windows and sliding doors I think.

I think that is all for right now and look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to help us.
Renee

[sacramento2008]

I'm curious what the results of this were? We too have a stucco house built 1949ish and it needs window replacement... one bid for total replacements was over $10K and since we've seen windows at Lowe's for only =/- $200 each we are wondering about doing this ourselves... would appreciate knowing your experience... thanks.

[ballengerb1]

Reneehsm, try to keep your posts short and to one point or question at at time. Replacement and new windows can be nearly identical in price and quality. Replacement windows have no nailing flange, they fit snuggly inside the opening. They get csrewed outwardly into the house window opening.