Nancy and Others: I have also been researching what to replace my great room sliding glass doors with (one 6 ft wide and two 9 ft wide). Here it is, already December and I haven't made a decision! We bought the house in 06 and these are the orig that came with the house. I spent last winter stuffing kitchen towels in between the sliders with a spatula. Not the most attractive thing for the room company walks into. Originally, I thought of going with french doors but the prices quoted were so outrageous and since we don't plan on staying here more than 3 or 4 more years (as it is, we'd take a bath if we sold now with home prices as low as they are now and we wouldn't be able to get what we paid for it), I don't know if it would be wise to invest that much money. I'd been thinking of going the sliding door route once more. Someone above said french doors are tighter than sliders and thoughts of all those kitchen towels between the sliders last winter have me shifting back to french doors. I also want the blinds for the same reason you do....five dogs (3 pugs and 2 shi tzus). One thing I've learned talking to people at Home Depot and Lowes....the town I live in won't sign off on french doors that swing out. In the south, like Florida, they are preferred because of hurricanes pushing open doors that swing in, however, they are not permitted here. I assume it has something to do with snow and ice on the outside preventing exit in case of an emergency. I guess your posting was a couple of years ago so it may be too late to say to check with your building dept first. I'm curious to hear what you installed and how happy you are with it. Daisy

I found other urgent things to do for the next few days, such as driving round various nurseries in search of a particular plant I suddenly had to have. Oh, my--I can just tell how much you had to have that plant. Your subconscious was trying to save you from smashing in DH's head w/ that hammer....... new door, definitely. Throw the sliding doors in the trash (take the hammer to them first, though, so they can't get dragged back in). Then put up a curtain for now. Then call the carpenter that built such solid shelves, in such great sizes, and ask him to help you figure out what do so w/ the door. Bifold doors would be my vote, bcs they won't stick out into the room when you open them (is that why the sliding doors?) yet can be sized to give you nearly complete access (all but the few inches at each side. Is there woodword around this cupboard, like a door frame? Remember that it can be moved. And since you built recently, you can get matching wooden trim. But since those are longer-term projects, you need to get that door outoutoutoutoutoutoutout. I'm working on a new magazine, and in one of their projects, they show a WINDOW SHADE covered in fabric to cover a section of a bookshelf. That would give you a less rumply/gathered look, if your house has a sleek esthetic. There are curtain rods that swing or swivel; you could use those for short-term, and they'd function like a door. Tell us a little more about this cupboard--is it a cupboard like a kitchen cupboard, or is it simply a narrow closet, w/ woodwork around it, etc.? What kind of space is in front of it, etc? Why a sliding door in the first place? Here is a link that might be useful: swivel end sash rods

We will replace 2 sliding glass doors (72"x80") with metal frames, likely original to our 49-yr-old house, because they've fogged and one is hard to move. Our contractor recommends Viwinco and the distributor he sent us to seconded that and showed an S-Series unit (vinyl clad exterior & interior) with Northern Zone glass pkg. We also looked at Anderson Narrowline 200 Series. Is Anderson worth the additional cost? Online I read mixed reviews of Viwinco, all at least 5 years old, along with recommendations for Sunrise (no local dealer in NE Pennsylvania) and Okna. Okna is carried by big box stores but I don't know what model to look for. At our "advanced age," we don't know how long we'll remain in the house. What do you recommend?

Updating this thread for others considering aluminum frames: We did install the Milgard aluminum windows. They are really neat looking! My one regret is that there are a few windows where the old had a fixed pane and a casement. I ordered double casements instead, and probably should have stayed with the original layout. This because the double casements have a lot more 'frame' showing than we originally had. A few other things: 1.) We had some problems making casements work in some bedroom locations - due to emergency egress requirements. Basically a Milgard casement must be 30" wide for egress. Narrower and it won't meet code - even though the hinges are on the jamb. Wider and it becomes too heavy to work right. So we had to use sliders instead. 2.) Energy-wise, Milgard offers 'thermally broken' aluminum frames, but, strangely, not in California. I did order our windows with Milgards "Suncoat Max" upgrade though. It is interesting to place ones hand on the frame and then place it on the glass. Big difference in temperature. However, combined with other things in the construction (e.g., IB Systems membrane roof, and Techshield radiant barrier decking), the house is staying suprisingly cool during the current heat wave. (Got up to 100° yesterday.) And the insulation and drywall have yet to be installed! So in our case the aluminum frames don't seem to be a big problem. But if one were to insist on thermally broken aluminum, then Fleetwood seems to be a better way to go. (FWIW, I gave the local Milgard area rep a hard time about not being able to order thermally broken in California. Seems silly that you can order them in other states, but not here.) 3.) Milgard delivery was *fast*. Like less than two weeks from order to delivery. 4.) A nit: Our frames are dark bronze color, almost black. For some reason the screws mounting the casement lock handles are bright colored. Yet other screws, such as the ones holding the screens, are black. I need to call Milgard to see if they can provide some black screws to make the bright ones 'disappear'. 5.) For the master bath, I ordered reeded obscure glass, on the thought that it kinda carried the theme of the reeded obscure glass in the sidelight of my front door. (Of course a workman accidently broke the original 1950s sidelight a couple weeks ago, so now I get to match the sidelight with the master bath instead...)