Windows

I'm still planning out my window replacements and need to decide soon.

I've gotten estimates on Milgard aluminum replacements for around $12k (windows only) and labor estimates of $13k and $16k.
I'm having a hard time swallowing that cost for what is essentially a block fit of the windows.
Remove stops, pull old window.  Clean, caulk, set window.  Replace stops, caulk, prime and paint.

Someone commented that he/she had Blombergs installed.  Can you let me know what that ran?
I have a feeling that $25k is about the right ballpark for the entire project, at least in Milgard.
Blombergs run about 2x the price of the Milgard, at least from Palo Alto Glass.  I didn't even ask them about their labor costs, assuming they wouldn't come up to Walnut Creek, but maybe they do.

Such a small world

(not my actual car)

I've been shopping for windows, and since this is an Eichler, aluminum windows are the only thing that looks right, in my eyes.  I work a long way from home, in the South Bay, so a vendor there directed me to a house in Sunnyvale, to which they had sold Milgard windows.

I did a driveby, but couldn't see much due to a high fence, so I left the owner a note.

She was nice enough to call me back, and after several days, we were able to make arrangements for me to stop by to see how the large picture glass windows would look with a thin aluminum frame (for the record, they look fine).  I gave the owner one of my business cards, and she thought she recognized my name, but neither of us could recall the other.

A day later, she emailed me again, and asked if I had ever owned a Volvo or lived on the East Coast.  Turns out this fellow Eichler owner and I have in fact crossed paths before.

In 1999, shortly after the birth of my first daughter, I decided to get a safer car, and bought a used Volvo, sight unseen, on eBay.  I flew from NY to Miami, picked it up, and drove it home.

The seller is the very same person that has the Eichler in Sunnyvale.   How bizarre is that?

To make this post a bit more Eichler-relevant...  there are two good choices for aluminum windows: Milgard, or Blomberg.  Neither is sold with a thermally broken frame in CA, so both are subpar choices IMO, but aluminum is really the only thing that looks "right".

I had Eichler Solutions out who proposed vinyl, which kind of shocked me.

Still pricing, deciding, but leaning towards just doing it all now.