As someone who is in the process of replacing windows, I feel your pain. I would suggest that you go outside and look at your windows. What kind of style are you looking for? It looks like you have the colonial mullions that possibly go with your farmhouse style? You want the house to have a cohesive look. Right now it probably has the feel of add on's with all the different windows. Personally if it's a farmhouse style, I would probably go with double or single hung. My concern with casements is if they are too big they may eventually sag and not open/close correctly. If you are needing to stain/paint then hire a paint contractor if you don't want to do it yourself. They would be more apt to do it correctly. I have no idea what drop-in's are. Hopefully this isn't where they cut off the flange on the outside. Personally I don't see how you would ever keep the water from infiltrating around the window unless you recaulked/checked every year. And then, it would be very easy to miss a miniscule spot.

Hi Central 79, Glad to hear you are narrowing down your window options -- it will be good for you to get the decision made so you can move on to the next big decision. I don't know anything about either the Windsor or Plygem windows, but hopefully you will get feedback from the window experts on this forum about these two brands. I know Integrity is a popular choice on this board. As per mixing different window materials, I think that would not be a problem with the attic windows, or any basement windows. We have vinyl in our basement, and on the north front face of our home. Before starting our addition we had recently replaced all the north facing windows with a high quality vinyl windows. When we chose to go with fiberglass for the addition, I was worried they would not go. However, this has not proven to be a problem given all the windows on one side of the house are the same. All of our windows are white like you are suggesting. For sure the vinyl windows we have have thicker mullions than the fiberglass, but they don't look that different. Now we don't have wood on the interior as you are considering as our fiberglass windows are fiberglass on the inside and outside -- not sure if that makes a big difference. I was unclear from your post where you were planning to mix the windows. Will different windows be in the same room? Will different windows be on the same side of the house viewed from the exterior? I do think the attic fixed ovals will not look out of place with your main floor fiberglass windows. Are you planning to mix two or three different kinds of windows? What do others think about mixing different windows? Carol

Hi everyone, Thanks for the responses. It's been more than four months since my original query so I thought I'd post an update. After talking with several other contractors and vendors, we decided that going with replacement windows was clearly the wrong choice, so we switched contractors to someone with more large-scale remodeling experience and went with new construction windows. In the end we chose Anderson 400s and used Azek trim on the outside. The old windows came out and we found some damage to the underlying sheathing and framing, but not too much. The new windows were installed and insulated properly and the difference is huge. While we were at it we also replaced most of the edge and corner trim and drip caps on the house as this was rotting off as well. The project is taking a lot longer (we're hopefully wrapping up this week) and is costing a lot more than we thought, but I'm glad we caught this when we did as the damage would have been a lot worse if we had waited. Interestingly, the cost of the new construction windows was actually less than the replacement windows. The labor was more, of course, but we were already being forced to replace the rotting exterior trim so that was all equal. We did have to replace the interior trim, which was not inexpensive, but in the end the project wound up costing the same because the windows were less expensive. The difference in the new trim is amazing- it's nice to have real window sills and stools, with a less generic casing around them. The question of new windows vs. restoration was never an issue- the old windows (only 18 years old) were of poor quality, poorly installed, and leaked cold air to the point that we had to install plastic sheeting over the openings in the winter. Also, many of the window sills, mullions, and jams were rotting, so the amount of work to restore the existing windows would have been huge, We were going with new windows one way or the other. Thanks again for your help, Josh

Thank you so much everyone. This is so helpful! The window would be on the wall nearest to the outdoor stairs down. It is facing south to the backyard and woods behind the house. But after seeing Mark Bishak’s comment and photos I don’t think I have any room for a window. It looks like there will be a lost of wasted space because of all the corners I have.