Your little girl's room is just darling. I love how you've made her name so colorful above the window... it picks up the colors in her bedding. One thing you might want to do is put some window film over the top of the window, above the existing curtains. You can get ones that look just like a stained glass window. Or, you can use a sun blocking film, if you prefer. Another thing you can do is paint the upper part of the window with Gallery Glass, to create your own version of a stained glass window. A third option is to do this, only instead of doing it with a valance, as pictured here, attach full-length curtains this way. Then use tiebacks to open them, and unhook the tiebacks at night to close them, similar to what you have. They also make arched window blinds (http://www.burmeisters.net/missy.htm). I am not recommending that source... it's just the first one I found. Here is a link you might like... Here is a link that might be useful: Arch window treatments

I am so glad that you love your Marvin windows--we have one small bay window from Marvin that we added in the kitchen , but the fact is, on a house with 46 windows, the cost-effectiveness of replacing that many windows is not justified. At least not here in upstate, NY. That one window alone was over $1000. When I priced out windows this summer (and I looked at about eight different companies), the only ones we could afford were about $300-400 per window. For "crappy" vinyl windows. Still, that was an $18,000 investment on a house that we paid $125,000 for. The numbers just didn't add up. If we went to Holbrook Designs (exclusive Marvin dealership here in Albany), the new wood windows were $800 and UP! Even if we got the $800 windows, we would be talking over $35,000!! In Holbrook's defense, they were absolutely lovely and professional on the phone and warned me of their costs before they came out to measure and give me the ubiquitous sales pitch. Storms were about $120 each. Is cleaning four surfaces a pain? Absolutely. But my two oldest kids can help me from the inside while I work from a ladder on the outside. Might be a pain when I get older, but we do actually have window-cleaning companies around here if necessary. And in a house with three kids and two dogs, we are not exactly "neat-freaks," so deep cleaning the windows in fall and spring is plenty for me. I thought this decision to keep my windows would be hard for me (check out earlier posts I have put on about the same thing...some as far back as 2006--that's how long I've been mulling this over!), but I am really fine with it now. These windows have lasted for 150+ years...I'll let someone else make the decision to rip them out somewhere down the line! Not gonna be me :) I do think it's to each his/her own, however. My sister-in-law has a charming little 1930's bungalow but likes everything new--so she had no problem replacing all of the original windows and doors with new ones--and covering up the old wood floors that needed some TLC with laminate. They love it and are happy with their choices. So that's fine! But for me, I like the solid, somewhat imperfect but historic feeling of our house. In it's 150 years, it has only been owned by three families (one of which was my husband's grandfather), so I can just imagine all of the life events taking place there. And with the windows, I just like imagining how many people have actually looked out those same windows over the years. I know--romantic and corny. But I can't help it--history teacher with a minor in urban renewal and you get a historic architecture sap!! ;) S

If you were going to be truly historic, you shouldn't have air conditioning, but I am going to guess you are going to opt to put that in. Just trying to make the point that being that historic is great, but if you can save $13,000 and make the home considerably more efficient with only the slightest offset in visual (non-detectable to everyone but you or a window professional), why not go that route?

@apple_pie_order -We are not going to put on shutters. It has been so amazing to see the transformation of our home!! We also were able to go with composite decking in Earl Gray (ties in with the gray roof and black lighting fixtures) The old screened in porch on the far right will be torn down in phase 2 when we do the addition.