House maintenance

[LuvOrlando]

Windows can be tricky. The price we paid for our dual pane Anlin windows was based on the sum total linear inches of window you are buying, not on the number of windows. Doing all of them at once lowered the total price quite a bit. Our 1979 single pane windows still functioned property, so in reality the new windows were only a cosmetic upgrade. If there is an improvement in noise transmission or energy savings, we have not noticed that. So I would not update windows expecting an improvement. But we knew that as we added onto our house 30 years ago and the windows are dual pane there, and put a dual pane bay window in the kitchen at that time. And we put dual pane windows in the bathrooms when we remodeled 13 years ago. We did not replace the window in the garage, saw no reason to.

I know it is cheaper in bulk but the cost of replacing windows is usually quite high, not everyone can absorb expenses like this all at once. Most people have a situation where one side of the house gets more of a beating than the others from sun or weather exposure resulting in rot, leaks or warping of some kind This lets stuff in you don't want like cold air, hot air or critters. One friend had bugs getting in a double window because the house settled away from the window frame and sort of bowed away from it. No reason to change all of them if the one was an issue. since it was the front eventually she did the others too to match and just manages the others as time goes on.

 

[tvguy]

I know it is cheaper in bulk but the cost of replacing windows is usually quite high, not everyone can absorb expenses like this all at once. Most people have a situation where one side of the house gets more of a beating than the others from sun or weather exposure resulting in rot, leaks or warping of some kind This lets stuff in you don't want like cold air, hot air or critters. One friend had bugs getting in a double window because the house settled away from the window frame and sort of bowed away from it. No reason to change all of them if the one was an issue. since it was the front eventually she did the others too to match and just manages the others as time goes on.

I guess it depends on what cost you consider to be "quite high". We did 5 windows for $4,500 installed. Less than it cost to paint the house. This year's splurge was a new mattress, for over $3,700.

 

[barkley]

I guess it depends on what cost you consider to be "quite high". We did 5 windows for $4,500 installed. Less than it cost to paint the house. This year's splurge was a new mattress, for over $3,700.

so did you just have a portion of the home's windows done at that point b/c unless it's a very small home I can't imagine there only being 5 windows (even if you exclude any sliders)-our first home in California was a small one built in the 50's and got to slide on allot of the building codes that came and went but we still had to have ingress and egress (so windows) in all the bedrooms and habital rooms so that took us over 5 out the gate.

 

[tvguy]

so did you just have a portion of the home's windows done at that point b/c unless it's a very small home I can't imagine there only being 5 windows (even if you exclude any sliders)-our first home in California was a small one built in the 50's and got to slide on allot of the building codes that came and went but we still had to have ingress and egress (so windows) in all the bedrooms and habital rooms so that took us over 5 out the gate.

The house was originally a 3 bedroom two bath house. 1754 square feet.
Windows in all 3 bedrooms, the Living Room and family room were replaced in 2025. 5 in total.
The two original bathrooms had dual pane windows put in when we remodeled in 2013 so those were not touched. The sliding doors in the master bedroom and family room are dual pane and replaced during the 2013 remodel. The garage window was NOT replaced, it is still the original 1979 single pane. We added a bedroom and half bath in 1993. The house is now a 2010 square foot, 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home. There are two large windows in the addition, plus a small one in the half bath. They were not replaced as they are dual pane and if they do need replacing, it will be free because of the lifetime warranty. The kitchen window was replaced with a dual pane bay window during the remodel in 1992..
So a hodge-podge of windows. 1 single pane from 1979. 4 dual pane from the 1993 addition. 2 dual pane from the 2013 remodel, plus 2 dual pane sliding doors. 5 windows from 2025.. So 12 windows in the house, 14 if you count sliding doors as windows. The 5 most recent windows are Anglin. All the rest of the dual panes are Milgard, including the bay window and the sliders. The garage window is an unknown contractor grade single pane.

 

[Brian Noble]

I have read anywhere between 1 - 2 % per year of the value of your home.
I’m not sure how realistic that is. I’m a bit paranoid I’m going to get hit with a large unexpected bill, yet I have money, possibly not needed, accumulating in that budget over the years.

I don't really keep a separately-designated fund for unexpected home repair. Rather, I consider that one of the purposes of my emergency fund (as with @tx911, that's about six months' of expenses). That fund is (very) comfortably over that 2% figure, though that's partly becuase I bought a smaller house than I could "afford".

And, I think that is one way to address the fear of an unexpected bill. It is unlikely that you are going to have more than a couple of major "emergencies" at once, but there are many possible "emergencies" that could happen. So, I don't really need to keep a fund that would pay for all of those emergencies at once, as long as I have time to breathe (and replenish the fund) between emergencies.