Pella Window Installation

[Al B]

Last time I sold a home was back in the 1960's. At that time, it sold for $230,000. Two years later the buyer sold it for over $500,000. Homes here are at a premium. More buyers than homes available. Now builders are building condo's all over town. Single family homes sell for around 700,000 and up to a million or more.

[John Morris]

26 minutes ago, Al B said:

Last time I sold a home was back in the 1960's. At that time, it sold for $230,000.

Dang Al! That was big bucks in the 60's! That must of been a mansion!  

[Al B]

Not really a mansion John, but always well-maintained. It did include a swimming pool on a 1 acre lot. The present owners have really not taken very good care of it. Looks terrible in my opinion. But that was over60 years ago.

Edited September 22 by Al B

[Gunny]

46 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Dang Al! That was big bucks in the 60's! That must of been a mansion!  

I thought same thing. Bought my house in 1991 for 72K.  Last time I checked was open market for 289K.  Crazy.

[Al B]

Guess the price of real estate here is a lot higher here than it is in Georgia @Gunny. Just the land on my existing property is valued at over 224 thousand. Maybe wages are higher here. The guy who mows my lawn charges $60 per hr. and that's cheaper than most. My daughter hires gardeners for her gardens who charge her $75 per hr. When I retired I wasn't paid those wages.

Edited September 22 by Al B

[Gunny]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

When I retired I wasn't paid those wages.

 

I know right?  In 2001 I left Pepboys making $25.00 a flat rate hour.  The hourly rate was $88.00 charged to a customer.  Today the average is $25-$32 for the tech and $130 to the customer.   So the average tech makes 66K to buy a 300K house, leaves little else to spend money on.

[Al B]

Curiosty got me wondering about rentals in Town. I couldn't believe the prices. A 1 bedroom apartment rents for an average of 2300 dollars a month .,plus utilities. Many 2 bedroom apartments rents for over $3000 a month. How can people afford this. That's like paying for a home mortgage. Sure glad I no longer have a mortgage on my home.

[Gunny]

52 minutes ago, Al B said:

Curiosty got me wondering about rentals in Town. I couldn't believe the prices. A 1 bedroom apartment rents for an average of 2300 dollars a month .,plus utilities. Many 2 bedroom apartments rents for over $3000 a month. How can people afford this. That's like paying for a home mortgage. Sure glad I no longer have a mortgage on my home.

 

Exactly.  I pay mine off in next couple years.

[John Morris]

21 minutes ago, Gunny said:

 

Exactly.  I pay mine off in next couple years.

Congrats Gunny! That'll be a nice pay raise!

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

A story on the news last night talked about a number of folks opting to buy RVs and park them at a campground to live in. It was all due to unaffordable housing/loans/etc. Here in Ohio we have a slightly different way of forcing folks to give up their homes, we let the property taxes go so high the owners can't afford to pay them.

[John Morris]

44 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

A story on the news last night talked about a number of folks opting to buy RVs and park them at a campground to live in.

I saw that exact same news segment Fred, at first glance it looks fun, and for some I bet it is. But for those who really would rather set down roots on a foundation, it must be frustrating.

[lew]

Good choice on the windows. 

True Story- home next door built in 1950, same owner until 16 years ago. In the 1980's the the owners put in Pella windows. Shortly there after, Mimi decided "we" needed new windows. She called the Appleby Windows company. High pressure salesman. Windows replaced. Seven years later they all fogged up (10 year warranty). Called company they sent a tech. Yep, faulty windows. Company stalled/delayed until warranty expired. House next door- windows are still perfect.

The Appleby windows costs almost as much as I paid for the house in1968- $14,400- and will stay there until I win the lottery. Besides we're at 38 years on 40 year shingles so a new roof is the next major expense. Every time one of those traveling window salespersons knocks at the door- Mimi has to intercept them before I have a chance to have a "come to Jesus" conversation with them. 

[John Morris]

On 9/24/2025 at 4:34 PM, lew said:

Mimi has to intercept them before I have a chance to have a "come to Jesus" conversation with them. 

Sorry I missed this reply Lew, thanks for the confirmation on my window choice!

I had two run ins with window salesmen over the last decade and obviously we said no to each. They would come in, set up all the fancy gadgets on the dining room table, a scaled down segment of the window, with a hot lightbulb sitting next to it, see how cool the other side of the window feels? Salesman brings out thermometer, and light bulb side says 108 degrees, side opposite the light bulb says 72 degrees, room temp. Nice display, nice demonstration, I had no doubt the dual pane windows with UV blocking levels worked, and honestly I was ready to sign on the dotted line until, he says $32,000 for 12 windows in our entire home three of which are similar in size to the one I show in this topic, the rest were average size from 24" to 32" wide.

 

That's an average of 2600 bucks per window. He said that was his absolute best price with the sale promotions etc, after an hour I got him down to $22,000 (I guess that his other best price ) and he was feeling uncomfortable with that. I finally said no thanks, it's just too much.

Us guys here and all the handymen husbands and dads out there, we are fortunate we are able to do these things for ourselves, otherwise it'd be very tempting to pay these high costs. 

 

If you are not comfortable doing your own windows, keep haggling till you get the price you are comfortable with, three or four bids, and pick the company that feels right after researching and checking reviews..

Or come here to The Patriot Woodworker, we can walk you through the replacements!

 

[JimM]

For new construction, this is an excellent article about flashing the windows properly.  I remember seeing many people just cut an X in the rough opening and wrapped the housewrap into all four sides of the opening.  There's a reason vinyl siding has weep holes.

 

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/windows-doors/installing-and-flashing-windows-correctly

 

(Sometimes FHB gets a little stingy with their articles.)