We recently renovated our home and installed all RH Sutton shower hardware. We have three shower faucets, and all three have broken (one of them has broken twice). The valve that controls the hot & cold water flow is plastic and easily breaks with very little torque from the handle (my late-60s arthritic mother-in-law broke one of them), which then means you have to shut off the water to the house, remove the face plate and turn off the water to the faucet directly, and then spend a week without using that shower before you reinstall a replace ment valve -- which in my experience will last 6 months or so before it breaks and must be replaced again. Reading through these reviews, it sounds like this is a pretty common issue. I will be avoiding RH plumbing products in the future.

Kelly002 Dear Kelly002, et al - I live in the greater Boston area. Last year, I recently went through a similar thought process. My house is over 100 years old, I live in the historic district (ie have rules on what/how visible feature of the house can be repleced, etc.) and, frankly, I like the aesthetics of my old wooden windows. I also believe that a big part to energy conservation that is overlooked is the return on ones investment. As I investigated different options that where comparable to the architectural character of my house, I was amazed at the costs. New windows, installed, were in excess of $900-1000 per window! Having 45 windows = $45K. When you look at the basic math of "new" quality windows, you come to realize that their return on the investment is negligable and very long term - maybe 20-30 years? Additionally, it is not like you can increase the valuation of your house and if you do not use good windows you can negatively impact the value - cheap windows don't last and the look losey As I investigated the drafts, the lack of comfort in both noise and weather drafts, it became clear that the real culprit was not the glass window, but the weight cavity which separates the outside from the inside by 2 one ince pices of moulding. The option I ended up going with was to hire a local guy who uses a counterbalance system from Pullman Manufacturing in upstate NY and a little yankee ingenuity. The counter balance allowed us to agressively insulate the weight cavity, caulk the windows, install new parting beads and clean up around the window frame and window stops - even clean the windows. The real cost was the manual labor and know how. The total cost was about $200.00 per window and it really works. The first thing I noticed was that the sound outside was muted dramatically. Since then my house is really comfortable - ie warmer in the winter and the cooler in the summer - although it would be nice if they had better regulation devices on A/C. On the financial side, the 8-10K investment should pay for itself in less than 5 years. One other aesthetic comment - I found myself not covering the windows as much - because they looked great with new brass wood screws and window locks that where installed. lol

It's easy to say "Buy American" but how many of you would pay double for an item to do that? I do. All the time. A jeweler once admonished me to use local talent - otherwise someday when I needed something it wouldn't be there. I have taken this to heart. We're all responsible for how other people are treated. We're all responsible for the things we buy. Shamefully most of the electronics we use Coltan - which is (generally) obtained in deeply unethical ways requiring a price in life and blood that if most people knew about would look in askance at our throwaway culture of electronics. But for most other stuff you can generally find a way to not buy the thing that requires an other person live in misery. My avoidance of things made in China isn't born of racism. The Chinese are as capable of putting out an amazing work of art/carpet/tile/sink (or in this case plate) as anyone else in the world. I don't (currently) trust their business practices and I don't like the way their workers are treated. When you buy something from the US or Italy or France or Germany or someplace with actual labor laws you are (in part) paying for the fact that the man/woman who made it lives a pretty good life and has access to clean water. The factory where it was made does not throw out lead into the environment. I also don't buy carpets made in Pakistan or India because I don't think it is possible to buy carpets made there without taking part child slavery. If you can't afford the things you want in life without asking for someone else to suffer for them, maybe you should reevaluate what it is you want and what you actually need. Do you really think crack-addicted rednecks in American factories are more skilled than Chinese workers? If they're addicted to anything it's Oxy and Meth. Get your drug addictions straight. And you tell me: it's 2 AM, you're in some bigbox store because it's put all the other stores in the area out of business (and no sane proprietor would stay open to 2AM) and you need to buy a Thermos. They are both the same size, both will do the job, both are the same price. One is made in China - the other in the US. Which to you buy? If you use the fact that one was made in China and the other in the US - why? If you're saying that the "rednecks" do a worse job then I suppose you buy the one from China. Otherwise you already have your answer.

A few years ago I had my windows and entry door restored in my 1100 sq. ft. 1928 house. My goal was to make all of the windows easily operable, to repair dry rot (one window sill), to restore the original divided light door and hardware, and to maintain the architectural integrity of the house. I don't recall the cost but I think it was under $10k. Consider, though, that I had fewer windows than you and the scope of work was different. Most of my windows are easily accessible from the outside, and there are no screens. All work was done onsite rather than in a shop. The only weather stripping was for the front door. New latches were installed where needed. The work did not include any painting. I was home to observe the work and I was impressed with how labor intensive it was. It took many days of focused work to complete. This is specialty work so not cheap. But replacing my old-growth windows with new wood windows would have cost much more than restoration. And I couldn't bring myself to install white vinyl windows in my little English cottage. That said, I live in a relatively mild climate (Pacific Northwest) that only occasionally experiences extreme weather, which might not be your situation. Most of my neighbors have chosen to replace rather than restore their windows, so I'm definitely the odd one on the block. Good luck with your project.