We have Marvin windows and a colonial style home. We went with the "simulated divided light with spacer bar". Here's a cross section photo of this style. The interior is quality unfinished wood or primed wood, and the exterior is clad aluminum in your choice of color. The divided lights are permanently applied to the inside and outside of the window and there is a spacer bar in between the double layer of glass so that it really looks like true divided lights. True divided lights, like in antique houses, consists of individual small panes held together by the grid work of the window frame. Did I explain this okay so you know what I mean? WE LOVE OUR MARVIN simulated divided light windows!!! They tilt so they are easy to clean. Sure you have to clean each pane individually instead of removing a grid and having the whole window to clean in one shot. But I think the look is worth it. My experience with the removable grids is that they are flimsy and they don't look real (well, they aren't real divided lights). Marvin's simulated divided lights look pretty darn authentic. When we first built this house we did not have grids and I always hated those windows. The house looked like it wasn't quite right, especially from the exterior, because the windows didn't fit the colonial style. As others have said, maybe you can post a photo of your home and people can "vote". I'm including a photo of our home's exterior. And also an interior shot of the window. Good luck with your decisions. P.S. You can order Marvin's in any configuration. Divided lights on top window, none on bottom, etc. Also we got the low e option so our furniture doesn't get bleached out. They don't look different than regular windows, but the low e really works in keeping out the ultraviolet rays.

Glass was also taxed on size in some areas (mostly in Europe) so the way to cheat the tax man was to use smaller pieces of glass which were less costly tax wise. (This was particularly true of mirrors which were heavily taxed). So it was both initial cost and cost later :) Just like us today LOL Windows were also made from the bottom of glass bottles in many places in the country. You see it on occasion in England and in original window's in cabins in the US (my grandfathers place had a couple). They were a poor man's glass window. I'd take a couple things into consideration in choosing. Style of house, and what you're blocking with the extra wood. In my home, I'd never want the smaller glass expanses because I am on a lake with fabulous views. I don't want tiny squares of lake...I want huge expanses of lake (some of my windows are 6'x8' picture). I'd never want to change that to fill a style desire :) But in some homes...the view is not a main feature, so I'd think about what looked best on the house, before I'd consider the view out of the windows.

Are those "gridded mirrors" (for lack of better description) going to remain there?? My first thought would have been no grids, because windows have no grids. But I think the door with grids looks better next to the mirrors. I would go with white color, to match windows, but there are many people on here with much better experience and advice than I have :)

@K Kohr @Jon Alan and @res2architect helped me a ton with windows and the charm they bring to your home's design. They are a wealth of knowledge. I agree with PPF when he describes window pane sizing. I think that you want to have the same width of pane size. To explain that here is an example... See how the panes in the dormers are similar widths to the panes in the lower windows. Here are some of the colonial style. Honestly with the size of window you have I think a 9 over 9 would be just fine. I love the charm of the cape pictured above with it's 12 over 12! These are all equal widths and 6 over 6 This stone colonial has 9 over 9 on the bottom and 6 over 6 on top. Notice the side windows are 4 over 4 (kind of hard to see because of the tree in the way but they are attempting to keep the grids equal widths like PPF stated above. The dormered windows look to be 6 over 6 which is fine imo. Window grids definitely add charm if done right. So make sure you draw it all out and are ok with the look before you order your windows. Looks to be a beautiful house. Can't wait to see more of your build. You'll have to share your milestones on the home building forum when you get started. It is a fun group of people! Here is a photo of our exterior. We just finished building this summer. While it's not the same scale of build (financially) as your home will be (I'm basing that off of your window selection. Marvin's were definitely out of our budget). The addition of window grids gave our custom home the old world charm my husband and I were looking for. Thanks again Res and PPF for the help with window grid design :)