Fenestration

Windows! As you'd expect, our current house has windows. We didn't have anything to do with what they look like, how the trim is designed, the type, style, size or placement. But they're there and for the most part, they haven't caused us any trouble - except for the fixed window, 12 feet off the floor, that spontaneously cracked itself last month and is going to cost us many hundreds of dollars to replace.

This new house, though... we picked out the size, location, placement, glass type, and trim color and style of every window that's going into the new house. The options for windows are pretty amazing: double hung, single hung, crank opening, wood, vinyl, metal, various hardware materials and finishes, built-in shades, auto-latching, built-in child safety latches, insulation differences, etc.. But, as with the plumbing, the builder provided a reasonable baseline and we made a few cosmetic changes. Mostly, we made every window a bit taller. I have no idea how much 'a bit taller' works out to, given that we're talking about dozens of windows.

We also started the process of picking out doors. The options for doors are pretty much limitless. There are countless door patterns, dozens of glass styles, sidelight patterns, transoms, all in a range of materials (real wood being the most expensive). You're really only bound by the size of the wall where the door goes and the amount of money you want to spend. But even at modest levels, options abound. And the multiple catalogs we were given to pick from don't list prices. So, we have to pick something and then ask the supplier to provide a quote. This is not an efficient way of doing things.

In crappier news, there are now seven houses for sale in our neighborhood of just over thirty houses - and four of them are brand new. All of them from the same builder, so are similar in style and features. This is the part that freaks me out the most. When we go on the market, it will make eight. How can we compete?

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