the autocad rendition above is taken from my preliminary drawings that I had made to give to the designer. I am not an expert. A long story, but the original designer was a guy my first builder recommended but turned out to be a costly mistake. He was in the middle of a divorce, strung out on anti-depressants, and did not complete the project. He also was not a CAD user. What a mistake. Needless to say, I deep-sixed this contractor and unfortunately learned an expensive lesson. I then started the project with another designer who finalized my plans similar to the last autocad design, but he used a different program, chief architect. I don't have that program, so I only posted changing the windows from my old autocad program. That is why the proportions and things don't look right. I do have a PDF file of the entire plans but I dont know how to convert them to either post, or email. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the insights. thanks again.

In response to Loewen Vs, Marvin. I sell several brands (Loewen, Marvin, Semco, Windsor, Jeldwen, Unilux) All these brands have something different to offer. Loewen is considered to be much better and stronger since some of their new engineering for their doors and windows has come out versus Marvins Douglas fir, Loewen is by far better. Now that is comparing apples for apples. Most people try to compare Loewen (only made out of Douglas fir or Mahogany) to Pine made products such as Marvin, Semco, Jeldwen, Windsor and others made from pine. Their is no comparing. Douglas Fir is much stronger than pine. As far as the glass, all the manufacturers order sealed glass from Cardinal glass accept Loewen, Loewen ordered their glass from cardinal however they build their own sealed units in a revolutionary way and have a stricter criteria of whats acceptable glass and what is not. Loewen sends back approximately 30% of the glass they receive from cardinal because it has defects. Loewen is stricter in what they tolerate in regards to what is acceptable, they are the strictest. The other brands are not as precision oriented. Listed from best to least quality 1) Uni-lux 2) Loewen 3) Marvin (Tied) 3) Windsor (Tied) 3) Jeldwen (Tied) 3) Semco (Tied) If you need a distributor let me know, at cj_spolski@comcast.net

We considered the Integrity, Andersen, Milgard Ultra and a few aluminum windows and eventually settled on the Integrity for our tiny beach house. We are replacing / adding new windows in stages. We put in our first window last week and we'll do two more this weekend. I can't say anything about longevity, but I am happy with the way the window looks as well as our local Marvin dealer. We went with the all Ultrex model with the ebony exterior. IIRC, the Integrity was the only fiberglass window to come in black; the others come in an almost black dark bronze but that would not have cut it as our other trim, front door and garage door are or will all be a true black. My one complaint about the all Ultrex is the lack of grid options--you can only have the fake looking internal grids and the interior side of the grids is only available in white. Since we think we'll eventually paint the interior of the windows black, we didn't want to be stuck with a grid/muntin bar that we couldn't change, so we went with no grids. Our windows are single hung.

I can't say much more than what's already been said. Both high quality windows. The difference in price most likely is in the fact that Marvin still uses a dealer system and kolbe you're usually buying from a distributor so there's less cost added on. I actually think the exterior with the bars in aluminum is better, that would be a narrow piece of wood that could easily warp or rot over time, with aluminum you don't have that issue, once painted it's the same.