My fiance and I have been looking to buy our first home for almost a year now. We have been looking for an older home (pre 1930's), because we love the historical feel, especially victorian architecture. A lot of us have that same dream. When I was a teen, I was dating a guy that was in a fraternity that was out of a beautiful Victorian. I remember the stairway, the flowers that were engraved in the wood. I remember the "dome room" and while it was a PITA to put furniture in, amazed me every time I went into it. I remember beautiful moldings, everything was etched and 3 or 4 fireplaces. It had a decent sized kitchen from what I remember, also had a servant room. Man I loved that house and swore that one day, if I could afford to have the house moved I would. The house was located in one of the worst neighborhoods. You had to lock your doors to drive there and run in the house. I bet that in it's day, it was one of the grandest houses. They ended up knocking it down, don't know when but I drove by about 16 years ago, there was nothing on the lot. Anyway, a lot of us have the same dream, to own a beautiful, grand house. Reality is the lack of things needed to live in it in today's world as Tricia said. Since you are not married with kids yet, it wouldn't really matter much, you would probably get by fine. Once you have kids and they start getting older is when you will notice how hard it is to raise a family there unless you luck out and get a house that has larger rooms where you can make closets, or one that has a decent kitchen. I wonder then if my fiance and I should actually change our dream to accomodate the current economy and the deals available? IMO, this might be a good idea, at least for now. Being newly married can be stressful. Unless the 2 of you are currently living together, you have to learn to live with your partner. How do both of you handle stress? Buying a house that you are working on all of the time is very stressful and could eventually start pulling you apart. You'll come home from work some days so tired but you have to sand & throw another coat of spackle on, or paint, or run out to the home store to buy supplies. Hubby & I worked on our last house starting 2 years after I moved in. We removed paneling, faux brick, painted, put in floors as well as putting a new floor frame on a concrete slab in the laundry area to build it up so that we could put a floor down. By the time we sold we were tired & cranky. Add to this a roof, electric upgrade, plumbing, which was a job in itself since there was only 1 shutoff valve, which meant we lost water for the day. We also did central air, a hot water heater as well as new furnace, and had planned to redo all of the baseboards as well. Are there any houses that are in between the old house and new construction for a compromise? You might be able to live a little bit more comfortably and not have to work as hard. It will also give you an idea of how the 2 of you work together as a team (or not). You can save the Victorian house for later on

The best? Look at windows that meet the PassiveHaus standard. Companies like Zola make windows that come in with U factor of 0.09 (R11), quad glazing, pretty near zero infiltration. No idea what they cost, but probably easily five to ten times the price of an Andersen 400. In the price range of an Andersen 400 look at the Marvin Integrity windows. They seem to provide a pretty good package for the price. We used a mix of Integrity and Ultimate windows in our house. The hardware is nicer and less obtrusive on the ultimates, but cost is significantly higher.

Sorry for lack of details. the basement will be casement egress. Main floor bedrooms will have two windows....either casement or double hung. My main concern is losing efficiency with big windows. I won't be buying top tier windows due to affordability, thus I want modest size without being too small. The living room 4' x 4' will probably be two double hung or two casement side by side. I though about going taller and/or wider to get a good view out the front of the house.

We're finalizing our contract and list of materials right now, and we're going with the Windsor Pinnacle series. One thing I'm trying to do is STOP reading reviews online! LOL Every window has at least one bad review! The most important thing I've read is that most of the failures come from bad installation, not necessarily bad product. I'm requesting that our builder give us an extended (10 year) warranty on window installation work and we're going over the install guide with a fine tooth comb and insisting that every step be followed along the way.