Deanie - I'm with the keep it inside and love it as is crowd....that little window has survived nearly 100 years of who-knows-what. Think of what a delightful treasure it is and will continue to be for future generations! That being said, I did see a lovely treatment in a magazine several years ago and it may be the solution for you. This homeowner had a rather large oval window fron her grandmother's childhood home. She took mirror squares and attached them to her wall, used molding to create a picture frame and hung her beloved window in front of it. Pat

Since you asked "what would you do?", what I would do (which isn't what others here would do, and I'm not criticizing them) is to fix it with trim. Honestly, I don't think anyone will notice unless you point it out to them. My front door is trimmed below the two windows next to it and I never noticed before this post. I am very particular about a lot of things, but this isn't a battle I would choose since the cost to change is so high and the the resulting fix is so small. When we were building our home 14 years ago, we had a couple of minor probems, both of which our GC offered to pay to fix. We declined since neither were a big deal to us. If it were a question of safety, that's another story. I understand those who say make them fix it. It is your money and you're paying to get what you want. But, you're obviously thinking twice about it or you wouldn't have asked the question. Economic times are tough, and it could be one of the lowest paid workers on the job who has to end up paying for this error. Dee

Sorry for not responding for a bit, I got really bad news about my little dog at the end of last week and we've just been concentrating on her since then. These windows look bad from the outside too sadly. The side wall is this pretty hideous stucco and the color is dubious. still I think the house looks pretty cute from the front so I'll post a pic of that. i decided to slow down on the beams and still haven't made a decision on lighting for the beamed portion of the room as recessed lights won't work. I may hit you guys up for ideas on that next. To my own shock I am considering track lighting for that section. i got several quotes for storm windows, both interior and exterior. The ones I have settled on are expensive ($4500 for all three), but they are built by a very highly recommended person in town who lives less than 5 minutes walk away, knows all the history of my windows and I just feel really good about using them. Mom still reserving judgement on the glass, but we'll see. I'm waiting on the design to come back showing some colors. The front of the house; it's about 2650 sqft. Most of the portion to the right would have been added at some point. It was initially just the tiny chapel to the left.

I imagine that the expense of the grading, concrete, well, etc. will amount to a project of some significance. At that point, the window should only be a very fractional portion of the project/labor totals. If there is a good match to the profile in vinyl, that should be fine, but I can't imagine a different product really moving the needle much on the total price.