We have had experience with all wood and aluminum clad wood windows. Wood window maintenance depends heavily on the "base" coat. If the base coat is done well, maintenance is easy for the next 10 to 20 years. If the base coat is done poorly, problems will occur. For base coat coverage, we take the view of when in doubt, cover everything as long as it does not impact operation. If you buy from Marvin windows and you intend to paint them, you can order the windows with factory-applied base-coat to save you work. One then has to assume Marvin will do a good job with the base coat or take full advantage of its warranty. From then on, it is the painting that has to be done well. In general, two coats of good paint is minimal. Every year, check (visually and with fingers) the exposed surfaces and seams and cracks where water could enter for signs of water intrusion under the paint. If there is any hint of problems, don't wait, do what is necessary to fix the paint. If the first several coats of paint are done well, the annual inspection should be as easy as a good close look and finger probes. If you find any problems, and it looks like simple sanding and repaint won't work, then make the effort to sand down to first coat of good paint or down to base, do it all over again with full attention to details like that of an old world craftsman. The extra work done right is often good for 10+ years or more. Depending on brand and type and color and environmental conditions, one can expect paint to fade within five years or sooner. Whenever fading begins, it is time to repaint. The paint is not just for beauty, it is also protecting the wood underneath so we do it as soon as able. So far, our very old family house (my parents') still sport those old old wood windows. In our own home, we have Marvin aluminum clad exterior wood interior dbl-pane, Low-E II windows and doors. We are in CA and just lived through a heat wave (5/16-5/17) where our exposed hillside location got up to 120-F (hot air + reflected heat) for an hour or so on Saturday. We were basking in 105-F heat for hours each day. Our summer highs can easily reach into an average of 90-F with peaks at 105-F. The double-pane low-E II aluminum clad windows and French doors have been able to keep us comfortable. If we do not run the AC, and we can use nighttime cold air to cool the house to near 65-F by sunrise, our house heats up to 85-F by sun down. If we run our AC, the house easily maintains 75-F all day with the AC cycling on for about 30 minutes and off for an hour or so. If the night air manages to cool the house down to 60-F and it remains that way until noon, then the house interior gets no hotter than 75-F by sunset without any AC. THis is with all doors and windows closed of course. Our house also has interior doors so that we can close off sections as we exit or enter during hot days. This lessens the impact of air exchange. There is an exterior solar shade to shield windows that receive full late afternoon sun. There is an extendable awning to shield the French doors during hot afternoon suns. When it is at peak highs outside, with our exterior shades down and awning extended, our interior window wood frames is hardly warm while the interior glass pane is slightly warmer to the touch but just barely. Hope all this helps.

I agree with Windows on Washington. In our market (DC area), there are dozens of window manufacturers available. We have factory reps. and wholesalers contacting us frequently offering incentives to carry their products. We are always happy to look at their products if we are unfamiliar with them. Most of the time we are unconvinced that their products are superior to the ones we currently carry. We accept a lot of responsibility to recommend only what we feel are the best performing products available and only products from manufacturers that have a history of consistent quality and customer service. In effect, our customers trust us to do the shopping for them. That doesn't mean we carry every top performing window out there as some aren't available to us and some, while very good products, don't fill a gap in our current offerings. They would simply replace a window brand that we have had a good experience with so we aren't willing to change.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I assume your new windows were installed inside of the old window frames, what we call an insert window. Depending on what model window you purchased depends on the insert frames thickness. One of Pellas biggest downfalls in the vinyl Thermastar replacement windows is they don't have a complete system to their windows. The double & single hung come at the 3 1/4" frame thickness we're used to. The casement comes with fins you have to cut off and a 2-1/2" frame thickness with the slider coming with a built on "J Bead" and fins. Nothing consistent in any way. The protrusion of the window can go either way. It depends on where the installer wants it to go to. Sound's like the installer will move the stops in to accommodate your requests. Thats good!!

Exterior mount.