Five - When you say that you cannot afford the wood series, are you talking about Wood-Ultrex, or the Marvin wood/clad line? Bumping to the Wood-Ultrex, should not increase your budget by a huge amount and you can stain the interior.

Our builder quoted us $10K more for the wood-ultrex (I think!!). Maybe I misunderstood, but that is what hubby thought too. I'm guessing (Hoping) that 10K included the staining if it has to be stained on site. It was an extra 6K (which we do already have included in our budget) to do stained trim throughout versus painted trim. However, we are already several K over budget where we would like to be, and DH wants to add a heat exchanger too. UGH!

Have you looked at Milgard Ultra which is fiberglass? I also wanted fiberglass because of its low maintenance and durability and colors and looked at Marvin, Milgard, and Pella. Marvin's only came with white interior but other colors for the outside. Milgard came in brown and brown on both sides, but it was more expensive to get the brown on the inside. Pella also had brown and brown. I went with Milgard because the warranty was better and from the ratings they came across as a very good product.

I just got them installed in the last few months. I've had problems with the factory and the sales rep making mistakes on measurements and other details that I'm not happy about, but the windows themselves I'm happy with.

Thanks for the suggestion. We haven't looked elsewhere yet, as hubby was happy with the idea of Marvin Integrity and that seems to be primarily what our builder installs. But since we both really like the look of the stained trim, and agree it looks great with dark windows but not white, we will have to make a decision on which direction to go. Thanks!