Hi Sarabr. These days I live in a 192Os Tudorbethan apartment full of mahogany furniture & antique fabrics, but in 1978 I moved into my very first post-college place, a 194O Streamlined Moderne apartment, where the floors were terrazzo, the stair rails were Monel metal and the windows were either glass block or steel casemements. In fact. those steel casements--at 12 feet, they were the widest windows in Peoria--were the reason I rented the apartment in the first place. Unfortunately, I signed the lease during a particulary mild week in late October, and within a month, I was shivering & miserable because the rusted windows wouldn't close all the way and the half-inch gaps between the corroded frames & the corroded windows turned my apartment into a howling, screaming wind tunnel. Thank heaven for steam heat. Somehow, I survived the winter, but when it warmed up in the spring I knew I had to do something. Unfortunately, my landlord didn't think my measly $175 per month rent justified his spending the time & money to restore my beautiful but rusty windows. That was the bad news, The good news was he was even too cheap to replace them with lumberyard double-hungs, the way another slumlord had destroyed the beauty of the streamline apartments across town. When he suggested stapling plastic over my windows, I knew the guy was insane. My walls were solid concrete. So, since I loved my place, and I loved my windows, I rehabbed them mmyself. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing and all my useless pals said I was crazy for putting my time & money on somebody else's building, but I was determined to bring the place back to the glamour it had had when it was new, and besides, what did my friends know? They had plaid couches, for pete's sake. Anyway, it was mostly just a matter of getting rid of a few decades worth of accumulated paint layers and/or surface rust, and also the windblown grit that had built up and hardened in the windows' frames and made it impossible to close them all the way. So, using a heavy duty scraper, a grinder attachment for my Buck Rogers-style drill, some wire brushes, a few cans of WD-40 & glazing compound black Rustoleum, I managed to get all but one of my casements working smoothly again, and when I finally got that one closed, I screwed it shut. When I was done, my windows looked good as new. Yes, it was a huge pain, and because I was a stupid kid, I probably lost a bunch of IQ points from breathing lead-paint dust without a mask, but--what was I saying?--the end result was worth it. Installing new wood casements would have been simpler, but they would have also been a lot more expensive than muddling through with my old windows, and more inmportantly, the thick sections of the wooden frames would have destroyed the sleek horizontal lines of the originals. As it turned out, the windows ended up looking so good that when I moved out, my landlord more than doubled the rent for the next tenant, a small ad agency, and they liked the place & the windows so much they not only stayed for 2O years, they kept my gray-&-black decor intact and ordered new furniture to match. So sure, you can replace your windows with wood, or you can spend a little more and have them restored to like-new condition, but if you do it right, you can probably restore most of them yourself. You may have to replace a few on the rear of your place, so that they can serve as replacement parts, but even if it's a job that turns out to be beyond your skills, at least give it a thought. Regards, MAGNAVERDE.

We had a similar decision to make except that the casements were to open into a screened porch and we were concerned that while on the porch, people might run into them. We have double hung windows with grills on the top half all throughtout our home but I didn't want my sink centered on a middle piece of wood between two casements. Was just something I didn't personally like for our kitchen. We then saw a similar window to what is in my most recent post which has sliders where the side casements usually are and a large picture window in the middle. WE LOVE IT because it gives us unobstructed view, still has the venting options, screens are on the outside and we felt that having the option of the grills on the side windows, helped it to look more traditional like the rest of the windows in our home....our window is one of the best choices we made - we just love it! I copied my link to my pictures below....you'll see it in the 4th pic down over the sink. Here is a link that might be useful: imlebby's kitchen

Typical window picture link is attached (hopefully). Still not sure I've got this photo attachment right, will list two links below. [IMG]http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/wlpitcher/IMG_3500_edited-copy.jpg[/IMG] 2419 Steel Casement

Andersen's double hungs and sliders are made with a 4-9/16" frames as standard with 2 exceptions. The 200 Series Tilt Wash can be ordered with no extensions, same as the casement, for drywall returns. But only standard sizes, and very few options. The Woodwright Insert replacement window comes with a 3-1/4" frame, made to sit inside an existing frame. It's even offered with a zero degree sill when it's replacing a casement and the existing frame has no slope. All of Marvin's products come with a standard 4-9/16" frame with exception of the Ultimate Insert window, and Marvin's Infinity line of replacement windows. Those have a 3-1/4" frame.