they don't do plain old gray screens anymore? do you have a pic of what it looks like w/the black or the white screens? also, remove those shutters. they don't work at all on the large window, and are useless on the smaller window.

I have both 1% and 5% white solar shades in my house. 1% in bedrooms for privacy and light control. 5% in living room to preserve some of the view and to reduce heat gain. It's a neat concept to be able to see the view through the 5% shade, but as soon as the sun is no longer an issue, which is much of the time (overcast days, trees leafed out and anytime after mid-day), I roll the shades up, because that's the view I really want to see. The sun shines through the 5% shade so much so that it hurts my eyes, so I have to position myself somewhere in the room where it is not an issue. I'm not sure how different black would be, but I've noticed that a lot of restaurants have black. I considered black, but I sort of prefer light and bright. I'm not sorry I ordered white, the view may be blurry, but the mind fills in the blanks, if that makes sense. I ordered mine from blind.com.

Replacement windows are usually smaller than the ones they replace, so you will be losing light if going that route. I'd also look into brands other than Pella. Their reputation is not great. You have a traditional colonial home. Don't try to make it something it's not with black windows. They have their place on some style of homes, but not yours. Stick with white. A nice compromise between what you want and what your husband wants (for your style home) would be grids on the upper portion of the double hung window and clear glass below. It's still appropriate for your home, but gives him a little of what he wants. They are usually a bit cheaper than the windows with grids on both sections. Like the photo below, but in white.

Here is my mock-up with two over one. I did one with the existing trim in red for clarity. It is almost non-existent. I see now you are going to add to the trim. The top of the bottom windows will have to be replaced too, because they are not wide enough. I agree with you that the trim should be white. The black seems heavy handed. Second picture with two black trim on the top left and two with white on the right. Lower level shows one of each. The trim I used was not wide. One other issue is what is the center window going to look like in black? Can you do a trim there?