Hi Jayme1: If you are stuck with keeping what you have, you can get a product to clean the aluminum frames at a hdwr or box store. Have you removed the glass and screens on any windows yet? If you do and get them back in place after cleaning them, do they move up and down? If not there are products like sill glide etc that you spread on the tracks. I noticed the wood condition above the windows and on the sills. For this kind of wear, I use Peel&Stop...I scrape all the loose paint and apply this clear product and then paint over it with a good oil base paint after filling holes etc. if screens are missing, you can buy a kit and make them for missing ones. Not too hard to do after the first couple of trys. Hope this helps.

I am also having aluminum windows replaced with vinyl, and spent yesterday getting estimates. Just like many home improvements, I'll bet it matters where you live as to what a reasonable price is. I'm in North Louisiana. I received bids for 11 window openings (3 are larger) using comparable products with each company. My highest bid was nearly $13,000 (large national chain) ...my lowest was $6,700 (reputable local company using slightly better product, with better product and installation warranty). YOU are the one to decide if tilt-in windows are a waste of your money or not. If it's worth it to you to have them tilt in so you can clean them, then get them. Remember, the salesman won't be the one cleaning them. As for your wood double-hungs: They've been there for 44 years. They may be in better shape than the aluminum, but they're still drafty, right? I'd also venture to say that in 1965 when they were installed they probably didn't have the benefit of low-e coatings and argon (just guessing; no expert). Please check on the guidelines for the energy rebate. Make sure you can still qualify if you only replace SOME of the windows. Bottom line: no matter what the salesman's angle is, YOU know what's right for you. Let peace be your umpire and go with what will make you most comfortable...in your house and in your mind.

As a general observation, the aluminum window will have a smaller frame profile and you will have more glass in that window than a replacement. That is a general observation though. There are instances where the proper replacement will clean up the opening size and give you at least the same amount of glass and perhaps more. All depends on what is coming out and going back in, but your window contractor should be able to discuss that factor with you.

We have an assortment of freezers. Thinking the 40+ year old giant Montgomery Wards upright would be dying soon we bought a smaller upright and a small chest. Then I decided it would be handy to have one on the back porch for the things I use most often. I use dollar store plastic baskets and cheap small storage totes with labels on the front in the uprights. Most everything we freeze is foodsavered and hard to corral (yep, double sealed and dh says he likes the generic rolls of plastic best). Right now none of the freezers are full and I could get everything into two, but it's so nice to be able to see in there. Giant, still-running upright is beef and three slabs of pork belly I need to bacon-ize. Small chest has a turkey and cloth grocery bags of pkgs of fruit and lots of corn. ...it was the last year for corn from our favorite u-pick so we stocked up. Other upright is pork, lamb and chickens. The back porch freezer is full of vegies,fish, stock, store bought stuff. Leftovers and things that should be used soon go in the fridge freezer. Sounds so organized. Ha. The best I can do is make myself go through them every few months. I tried an inventory taped to the door...was really bad about marking things off. I have gotten much better about labeling and dating, though. Even so, I always seem to wind up with a batch of 'dog soup' when I clean them out.