I have custom wood storms from Adams architectural in Eldridge IA. They also did my storm doors. I love them.

I'll take pics sometime when it is warmer. Right now .. -4 with a low tonight of -19.

I'm not going outside!

haha - don't blame you. I saw Adams Architectural mentioned on these boards - how was your experience with them? I'd love some pics when it's feasible - their website doesn't show much.

We have custom wood storms from Adams Architectural too. Ours are the combo plus, which have a fixed glass top pane and a removable lower pane -- glass for winter, screen for summer. We've been very happy with them. Adams was purchased in the last year or so. We bought 20 windows before they were purchased, and another 9 after. Both experiences were good.

Here are the storms from the outside:

And this shows the clips that hold the removable pane in place from the inside:

{{!gwi}}

thank you SO MUCH! Your storms look really great. do you recall the average price? Also, do you have AC? and if so have you noticed significant energy loss in the summer when you have the screens in?

the little I can see of your house looks beautiful - how old is it? And ours is a very similar color. ;-)

We put AC in the house in the fall when we moved in 4+ years ago and installed the storms with screens the very next year, so I really don't have any sense for energy loss from screens. Plus this house leaked like a seive (still does, just less) so energy efficiency is a work in progress.

I believe that the normal sized/shaped windows ran us about $200 a window. The arched top one in the stairwell and the huge one on the front were more.

If you read articles from Old House Journal and other preservation sources, they claim that energy efficincy from the combination of original sash and a well-fitting storm rivals any replacements. I can't say whether this is true, but original windows look the best too. We actually think the windows with wood storms look better than the windows pre-storms...more "finished".

Our house was built in 1905. We think she's pretty :)

Thank you so much for your responses. I have to say I am definitely wanting to do the storms - I would agree that the energy efficiency would be close to equal with storms/good weather stripping, etc but DH says that would probably only apply in the winter, when the screens weren't in. I do agree that these particular storms w/original windows would look better than sash kits - when we bought the house it had decades old aluminum storms that were hideous. When I'm back in town (this is our summer house) I'll have to look more closely for these types of storms - I'd only noticed the old wooden ones that fit OVER the window frame. (Especially common on the original colonials.)

He's not so much on board b/c we've spent alot of $$ to make our house energy efficient - converted to gas, most efficient appliances, foam insulation, etc. - I'll try to find articles to make my case. :-)

The prices you gave are about what I figured - all of our upstairs windows (8) have an arched top, and it's such a character definer - the old storms were square and you couldn't even see that lovely detail.

Your house is from my favorite time period, architecturally. I love the details and finishes from that period - our old house in Brookline was 1910 and I loved it.

I'm in the process right now of repairing the storm windows on a 1930's era one room school building that I had moved onto my property about 18 years ago. The half-dozen 6' high, non-standard size original windows are too draughty to go without storms, and replacing all of them would be prohibitively expensive for what the building is used for, a workshop/hobby space. When I repainted this summer I removed the storms, and now am in the process of repairing them as best I can.

These are cheap, ugly, flimsy aluminium storm windows probably dating back to the 60's or early 70s'. I have found out that it is very difficult to find replacement parts for this type of window. "They don't make 'em any more" (hopefully they are right). I have managed to locate some pieces, and have fabricated others by modifying parts removed from junk storm windows. Once cleaned up and repaired, I painted the bare metal frames, using a coat of metal primer under the same paint I used on the rest of the building. Painted, they don't look half bad, and should save considerably on the heat bill once they are all installed.

BTW, those are some nice photos. How do you go about posting photos on this forum? Some others I subscribe to have a button for attachments, but I can't find any clue to how to do it here.

Thanks for this thread- we are in a similar situation, and I think that we are leaning toward the storms like arlosmom.

donk4 here's a link to how to post photos it's from the kitchens forum, but it should help.