Skies the limit in this case. You are in a very window centric area of the country. There are a ton of good brands at your disposal there.

What do you want the windows to have in terms of options and performance?

Thanks windowsonwashington for replying. Not really sure what we want yet. Something warmer in winter than the replacement windows that we put in 25 years ago. I know they have improved since then. They are locally made windows but I'm thinking about maybe going with a name like Pella now. We are willing to pay extra for quality but definitely don't want to go the big box store route. Tilt in windows aren't really that important to me because I wash them from the outside anyway--too much trouble to pull back curtains and move furniture just to be able to tilt it in to clean it.

Tilt in is going to be pretty much standard these days on any grade window.
You have not specified which material you prefer, but if energy efficiency is paramount, you would be well served to consider a premium vinyl product like HiMark, okna, softlite, sunrise, and Polaris among others. If you prefer wood, Marvin , Kobe, and Andersen are good, and in that order. Pella's designer series has some nice options, but I'd do some additional all research prior to settling on them. Also, vinyl is not their forte.

While Pella is well known for their wood, vinyl is a new undertaking for them. They have a pretty solid unit in the new 350 series but I would still say that the brands that HomeSealed mentioned are much better.

I would also look for HiMark, Soft-Lite, Okna, Sunrise, etc.

Wow this is going to really be a learning process. Our home is modest and we dont really see the windows from the inside due to window treatments. We do see them in the kitchen and white looks best. From the outside, white looks best since our house is circa 1949 red brick. We just want basic, but I do want quality. I also don't want to be duped into something we don't need which seems to be the norm in anything one does nowadays. DH just goes with whatever and doesnt ask questions, but I've become a little more wary of salesmen. High-end vinyl sounds like the way to go. I probably need to learn about fiberglass. We have TOO many choices in our area, lol.

Between this board and the other research portals out there, you should be able to speed up the learning curve quite a bit and save yourself from the pitfalls of home improvement sales.

Start with a company search in your area.

Ask friend and family who they may have used. Search reputations.

Homesealed and windowsonwashington thanks for the info. I'll check out those brands of vinyl ones. Feel like I have a direction to start heading now !!

Good luck and keep us posted.