oops, just realized I should probably post this under the remodeling forum.

We replace windows here too! :)

I used a window that was vinyl exterior and wood interior. That's an excellent compromise between good looks and functionality.

My "new" house has new vinyl ones in and out. Wood would have been MY choice. It really does make a difference.

We just replaced the bay window in the kitchen with all vinyl clad...inside & out...to match the rest of the windows in the house. Yes, I do wish we had used wood, at least on the inside. But, since all the other windows are all vinyl we decided we had to match the others. Oh well.

I think that wood interiors is important (at least for me) but the outside of ours is aluminum clad and that's fine. It helps with maintenance and the look is okay. Budget wise we could never afford solid wood windows.

I love wood...but not where it is subject to heat, light, and moisture that will be a detriment to it, as it would in windows. Our architect friend is a 'window snob' (I lovingly call him that) and was aghast that we put vinyl windows in our house...and the kind with the grids on the inside. (Horrors! At least I got the wider, sculptured ones!) I doubt he'd be coming by to scrape and paint the wood or wash around the divided panes, and he wasn't footing the bill, so his opinion didn't go very far. ;-)

I have to admit that the ones that would have matched our fir trim were lovely...and if we'd gone with them, they'd only be wood on the inside...Vinyl or acrylic (I think that's Milgard's more upscale choice) on the outside.

Up until 2 weeks ago I had real wood, divided light, paned windows on my entire downstairs. And they're all gone! If money were no object, I would simply refinished my old windows because there really is nothing better than a real window. But I replaced them all with vinyl. Now I realize that I can tend to romanticize my old windows and really I like the vinyl so much better, especially since it was impossible to clean my old ones and took all day long to clean 6 of them..seriously...all day. You have decide if you want the beauty of real wood but also the hassles that come with it. Truthfully, I'd not waste my money on real wood that wasn't real divided light though.....

I replaced about 1/2 of my windows with vinyl and my gas bill is about 30% lower this year. I LOVE wood, but I love the environment more. To be honest, from outside the house, the new windows look better than the old wood ones and you can't tell what the material is. On the inside, we have shutters and drapes--who looks that closely? I have to go with the energy efficiency.

Well, I had to laugh when I saw this post- because right now I have 2 plywood windows over my kitchen sink. We removed the original windows and havent decided what to do. Rebuild the old ones. go with sashes or casement with mullions to mimic the look that was there. We are slowly refinishing the old windows they are 6 over 1 and I love love the wavy old glass. We also have storm windows so we are efficient enough for us.
We did have to replace 6 windows and went for the anderson wood on inside and vinyl outside with the mullion inserts.
I prefer the old ones. Sue

I just replaced all the windows in my home. The original windows were aluminum clad exterior and wood interior. I ended up buying the same thing when it came to replacing them. I just had to have wood interiors. I have stained wood through out my home, and the vinyl just wouldn't look right. If I had white painted wood that might be another story. Vinyl would have saved quite me quite a bit of money, but I knew I would not be happy. I love the rich look of wood. The new windows are very energy eficient, I noticed an immediate and significant savings on my heating bill. If you don't really love the look of wood, you'll save a pretty penny on vinyl.

We replaced most of our windows last summer (minus the bathroom - waiting till we remodel it and the basement - this summer) with the Marvin replacement with the simulated divided light. We did DIY, so we spent the extra money on the nicer windows and saved on labor. The hardest part was getting the storm window free from the nasty siding. I love them and have no regrets. I could not use vinyl on the inside... ick. I agree with your designer. Our windows make a huge difference and will look better as soon as we finish the trim, walls and floor.

I've always had wood and I prefer wood on the inside. As we've replaced windows in our current 35 year old house, we've gone with wood interior/aluminum clad exterior. A number of the windows in our house that were a higher quality brand are still holding up well 35 years later - wood interior and exterior - under pretty extreme climate in MN. The ones we've replaced were lower quality sliders - and one that leaked due to a structural change that wasn't done right. Otherwise I've not had any problem with wood windows in this house. I've had problems in other homes with lower quality windows - that really went south when the prior owners didn't keep up with painting the exterior. In all things I prefer stained wood vs. painted wood or vinyl - just what I like.

I have a friend who built a new house - pretty expensive one - and insisted on vinyl windows. So she has this lovely home with nice stained woodwork - and white windows. Doesn't look good in my opinion. And all this done because of condensation on the windows in her previous new home - which was probably the result of other problems completely unrelated to the windows. With the air exchanger in her new house she probably wouldn't have had any of that condensation problem.

Oh how timely. Our built in 1952 lake place that was once more like a "fishing camp" has the original windows that we can't even pry open. We HAVE to get new windows. I cannot abide by vinyl but don't have a clue what to get. Just now starting down this road. What should I get? Let's see, we're redoing the kitchen that had no insulation but now does, thanks to us. Really, there was no insulation anywhere. In the bedrooms, we had them punch all these holes in the walls and blow insulation in. So with that improvement, and the fire hazard of not being able to open a window, I think these old babies have got to go. But what kind of windows can I get to still look old but feel warm?

No, I don't. I live in a house that's almost a hundred years old, and that had its original wooden windows with peeling paint. We've replaced about 2/3 of the windows now with Anderson Renewal composite windows. Any replacement window would have solved the problem of not being able to clean the windows, but I didn't want the maintenance of real wood.

The millwork in my house is all painted, though, so the windows don't look out of place. They're also butt-jointed instead of mitered, like the original windows, which I prefer.

I'm not getting any younger, and I'm happy to have attractive windows that are mostly maintenance-free.

We replaced our aluminum windows with Milgard Woodclad fiberglass casement windows. The interior side of the windows is covered with a VG fir veneer. We also replaced all of the window casings with VG fir to match. They look and work great, but staining and varnishing all of that wood was a huge job.

Thanks everyone for your input. I am not sure our budget will support replacing 21 windows unfortunately. But who am I to complain? I'm getting a new kitchen and MBR so life's good.

lisapico, check out Jeld Wen - wood interior and vinyl clad exterior. Seems like a very good quality window at a reasonable price.