Sadie, I went and looked at my curtains. I see now that I actually used 2 panels on each side. Each panel is 54 inches wide. More width than I needed but I guess now that I didn't want to cut one panel into two widths. My panels are not lined. I just opened up the opposing side hems and sewed them together with a very narrow seam and then overcast the edge. I have no problem drawing the curtains across except for getting the folds to look "perfect"- that's partly because I have all that extra fabric width. I used to close the curtains everyday because the door faces south and the sun could be too much, but we have replaced the original door and now have blinds between the glass. Now I only close the curtains at night if we have guests for dinner and I want it to look a little fancier in the room.

Jeld Wen vinyl or wood? They have three series of wood. So which are you looking at? Facing west, you are going to get hammered in the winter as well. Just make sure you ask for their highest DP rated door and be sure to use Cardinal 366 for maximum sun protection.

We had the same reaction to cost when looking at windows and doors over the years but have learned to see it from another perspective. We live in our homes for a long time, may be 20+ years. We are in the house at least 14 hours a day during the week and often 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays. The house needs to keep us relatively safe and comfortable. If possible, it ought to be a living space that we can enjoy. With that in mind, a $5000 slider really is not that expensive. Most of us change cars every 2, 3, 5 or 10 years? Each car is progressively more expensive, there is also the insurance, maintenance, gas and tires and yet we hardly notice the amount of cash invested. How many hours do we spend in a car? A good door once installed properly can last 20+ years easily. $5000 for a slider, installed, sounds reasonable if it includes appropriate low-E coating for your region and is filled with argon gas. We got the same estimate from a Milgard shop for a 9-ft opening. If this slider is of high quality and can reliably enhance your living environment for years to come, it will be worth every penny. Good luck!

Went to see the VuSafe Storm panels and I'm sold. Plywood is not an option at my age even though I'm reasonably handy. These are lightweight and easy to store and install. Shouldn't be hard to preinstall upper and lower strip so I'm ready to go before storm. No ladder needed. Angle each of 9 light panels into upper track and use wingnuts on lower track (below where Andersen door will go). I took a sample box home from showroom. The tan here is the upper channel that would be installed above Andersen 3 panel door. The white strip on bottom shows 1 wingnut attached. The bolts are not stored in white slot until use. The second pic is a close up of the sample kit. The white clip is on the panel itself. That is what you point upward until you slip into the skinny tan channel. Then you fasten the wingnuts on the bottom from white channel. Their video shows the hurricane test of firing a 2x4 at 50 mph. I realized that this will be easier and cheaper than repairing an Andersen glass panel even with spidered glass. The panels nest for storage. I'll post more pics from my actual installation hopefully next month. The cost of this to cover my door and 2 panels is about a third of my Andersen door (with 2 side panels) itself. The impact glass options from Andersen would have increased my Rough Opening (more labor) and almost doubled or tripled my cost. Same for the Pella choices (my same RO) from either direct Pella showroom or Lowes. I'm not quite wishing for a storm....but I hope it waits until after my install.