I can't say much about the long term since I've only been living in this house for a couple years but I'm strongly with the "the heck with em" camp about pests and diseases. I do try to rotate my gardens around (not planting the same thing in the same spot all the time with annuals.) I am very firmly against buying bagged dirt, Just costs way too much. I do get mushroom compost when I can and I have used the free compost from the county too (ya just gotta watch out for glass in it.) We collect most of the neighborhood bagged leaves and grass clippings for the gardens and compost. We ask tree services working in the area if they need a place to dump the chips they can do it at our house. We compost and have a worm farm. I figure the more biologically active I can make the soil, the less likely the negative stuff can out compete and proliferate. About the only things I've sprayed as pesticides or whatnot, were thruicide, organocide, and neem. My biggest problem seems to be potassium deficiency. I spray with maxicrop but that gets costly when I have most of my yard growing squash, pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers that are all asking for more potassium (powdery mildew tends to attack those plants when they are weak on potassium.) Anyway, most of my gardens started as "lasagna gardens" with cardboard and mulch and mushroom compost. We don't till though occasionally we will for or spade through a bed after harvest to try to get rid of most of the annoying grasses. I can't really see replacing soil though if a particular bed or area seemed to get "toxic" I would probably knock it down and leave it fallow if I couldn't find something that wanted to grow there as a cover crop. I only add organic matter. I don't buy "top soil" or even "sand". I don't even buy bagged potting mix anymore. I just make a mix of old garden or potting soil mixed with new mushroom compost, other compost, some home mixed organic fertilizer and worm castings and call it new potting mix. I figure the more composted stuff around, the better everything will be inoculated to the possible diseases. I can't say for certain the long term effects of my methods as they have only been going on a couple years but I seem to be doing well so far. Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

The answer to your question depends on where you are financially and what the house is like. I'm thinking this is not a colonial mansion in Moorestown, NJ. The vinyl siding gave it away. With that in mind, there is no way I would spend that much money on those particular windows. I would replace the rotted parts of the sills. This is most likely only the outer 2 inches or so, where moisture has been trapped under the ext trim. I would also replace the brickmolding (ext trim). I would then have these openings wrapped with the aluminum of your color choice, making sure that that is sealed properly, and also installed behind whatever drip cap is above. What I'm describing is not expensive work, perhaps app $200 per opening, including material. It is also not time consuming work, and fairly straight forward. I would then choose a quality replacement window with an insert installation, preserving all your interior trim. I would think you could have all this done for less than $1k per window or so. It could be argued that the technically correct way to do this right is to gut the openings and go with full frame methods, all new everything in and out. But replacement windows are called replacement windows for a reason. It is not always desirable to replace everything. For instance, if those wood windows of yours have a rope and weight balance system, then there is a large weight pocket behind the jambs. It's just not worth it to take all that apart unless you're wealthy or doing it yourself. Just get the best window you can. I suggest fiberglass framed so that you won't lose glass space. If that doesn't bother you, high end vinyl will work as well. But don't skimp on the window. If you do, you will be back in the same boat in less than 10 years. One more thing. The aluminum wrap on the outside can be bent in such a way to have a brickmold profile. This is much more professional and attractive, and shouldn't cost any extra if you have true professionals doing the work. Good luck!

Actually the term "open burner" typically refers to the space that is left around the burners on older (and current commercial) stoves that leads to a drip tray underneath. Prior to the emergence of sealed burner cooktops, open burner stoves ruled the market. In terms of performance, they were actually superior to the current sealed burner due to better oxygenation of the burner. While burning, they were supported by an oxygen updraft from underneath the cooktop. Nowadays the burner is sealed off and once the flame has consumed all oxygen under your pan the flame reaches out to the sides of your cooking vessel to find its oxygen to burn, thereby reducing its effectiveness at heating. This is why the sole use of BTU ratings to determine performance can be misleading when it comes to cooking. How much heat a burner generates and how much of that heat actually ends up transferring to your pan, well... those are two different things.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting You're right I should have posted some photos of the space. There isn't much wiggle room and behind the cooktop there's only about an inch or so which isn't enough room for a pop up vent. The end goal is to replace the cooktop with either induction or gas and do as minimal reworking of the cabinets and venting as possible. Unfortunately it's not as simple as just replacing one-for-one. I wish it was! And of course, our relator told us it was simple when we bought this house. The cabinets aren't what I would choose if I was designing the kitchen but it works for now until we can redo the entire thing years down the road. These photos make the room appear quite yellow but that's just the light balance. Everything is white. The floor is more of a neutral brown. The cooktop is at the far end adjacent to the double oven. Behind that wall is the washer/dryer. Currently the GE electric cooktop has a downdraft blower built into the cooktop itself. It works great but I can't stand cooking with electric especially after having gas in our old house.