Friday, February 8, 2008

Window Replacement


Return on Investment for most residential home maintenance jobs is between 80% and 90% according to multiple published surveys across the United States. One of the best returns on investment in the home maintenance arena is window replacement. Window replacement improves the visual appeal of your home both from the inside and the outside, it reduces the cost of heating in the winter, and of cooling in the summer, not to mention that it is pure pleasure to stand within the comfort of your own home and look out from a beautiful window onto the world outside.

Today you can find a plethora of new window styles and fabrications. Look for something that works well with other styles in your residential neighborhood. If you go too upscale with any home maintenance job you may not reap the full benefits of your investment because house prices in any given neighborhood are always limited to a degree by what other properties in that neighborhood go for.

Window replacement can be one of the most nerve-wracking of home maintenance jobs. Buying all your windows at once is the only way to ensure that they will match, but it is very expensive for most of us to do so. Manufacturers discontinue certain styles from time to time so if you replace one or two and then plan on replacing the others later, you may have to choose from a different style. However, buying them all at once can put the job beyond our reach. One way to tackle the problem without losing residential curb appeal, and without taking out a massive home improvement loan, is to tackle sections at a time. Take a look at your house from the front. Study which windows really have to match. Perhaps all the bedroom windows that face front need to be the same, but the front living room window can be a bay window, which does not have to match exactly. Perhaps the kitchen faces front. You could put in a greenhouse window there that does not have to match the other windows. This piecemeal approach allows you to replace your windows over time, spreading out the cost of the job without losing visual appeal.

No matter how you approach the situation, window replacement is one of the most rewarding residential home maintenance jobs you can do. The windows look better from the inside, the energy efficiency is greater, and they give the exterior of your home a much nicer and cleaner look.

See other Home Maintenance and repair tips and strategies at 2 LEFT THUMBS Maintenance. You will also find links to our 2 LEFT THUMBS Remodeling, Home Improvement and Decorating articles.

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