I love the fiberglass outside - we bought the dark brown, which goes great with our woodtone siding. I just could not stand the thought of white vinyl frames in the forest, so I'm really happy with the way the dark fiberglass frames look.

Good luck!

One of the reasons I selected fiberglass was that I could paint the frames, if I ever wanted to. I ordered the windows in a beige/almond for the exterior and white interior. I very seriously considered ordering the wood clad for the interior, but when looking at the cross section of the sample on hand, it was such a meager bit of wood, it just didn't seem like it was worth the cost increase (particularly for our home/neighborhood).

We ordered our windows through a local glass and sash store. They had the best pricing and provided great service. I was able to play around with a variety of configurations to see what worked best and provided the best value for the project. The pricing on the windows has come down some in the past 5 years (we recently installed two new Milgard Ultra as part of a home addition), but the pricing on the sliders is still quite high (when compared to vinyl).

I worked at Milgard as an outside rep. No matter how much confidence you see out of their reps at trade shows, dealers, etc--privately we all knew the Woodclad/Ultra product was crap. We used to joke about how much the Milgard name influenced people's buying decisions. To be blunt, we were aware that:
a) the double hungs leaked like a sieve
b) the color of the sills changed in between two different colors without warning to us, so we were unable to warn customers (no, not inswing vs. outswing)
c) woodclad product that was damaged in our warehouse was knowingly shipped out to customers, and when the defects were pointed out a few weeks later, we were told to engage the customer and tell them that we would not take it back because they had signed for it
d) The mitering of the corners was God-awful in a lot of cases, but, again, we were told as reps to fight it out with the customer
e)The inswing and outswing doors are notoriously bad for water infiltration. Again, we were trained NOT to be forthright with customers and advise them not to use them in coastal environments--just get the sale at the expense of good, honest customer service
f) The Ultra and Woodclad sliding patio doors have not been engineered with an offset weep system. What that means is that water blows in a straight line through from the exterior to the interior of the door and onto the floor once it fills up the sill. If you are in Palm Desert--no problem, but up on the coast where the rain comes in sideways sometimes......look out. (put a small stick in the weephole on the exterior of the door and watch where it goes if you don't believe me!)
f) Marvin Integrity, Kolbe, Weathershield, and even Lincoln and Andersen had a much better product at a fraction of the price

g) They don't ship well. These are made in Southern California and will have all sorts of out-of-square issues by the time it arrives in Chicago.

There were a myriad of other issues with that product line. The vinyl is OK, but just extremely overpriced. If you have a large job, try purchasing your windows from a different dealer slightly out of the area. Local reps move their pricing around a lot.

Good luck!!

By the way, no, I wasn't fired from Milgard, I left on good terms and am in the photography industry now!! Much more gratifying than being forced to lie to the public!

Is there a line you recommend of full-fiberglass casements (Inside and outside - NOT wood clad) short of ordering from Canada? I think Marvin has just introduced one. Comfortline got a couple of truly awful reviews on here.

Advice: Once you paint you probably will be painting again and again!
Take the factory finish or move on…

Thanks. All this has been very useful

BTW, the Andersen Renewal rep I talked to last week said the product has a lifetime warranty and it is transferable if I sell the house. The Pella Impervia rep sais the warranty that covers defects is not transferable; there is s 20 year warranty on the glass that is transferable. 2 year warranty on labor (I think she meant install?).