| Author | Message | ||
     virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 154 Registered: 7-2001 |
A banker's colonial with slate roof, 5 bedrooms, and--the plastic windows of a cheap trailer home? A handsome tudor manse, ivy clinging, with--the glaring white aluminum of a new tract house? A porch-fronted dutch colonial, large welcoming columns, pies warming on the dutch door, and-- fake aluminum muntins behind oil-canning ghetto replacement windows? Please reconsider! Try storm windows, try hiring a handyman. Fix things occasionally, rather than just disposing and replacing with junk. | ||
| tjohn Citizen Username: Tjohn Post Number: 2052 Registered: 12-2001  |
Oh, the humanity. | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 155 Registered: 7-2001 |
Yeah, well tjohn, get your priorities straight buddy. | ||
| Lizziecat Citizen Username: Lizziecat Post Number: 125 Registered: 5-2003 |
Still with the windows, Virgilian? Get a life. | ||
| canismajor Citizen Username: Canismajor Post Number: 250 Registered: 7-2001 |
My cheap new ghetto windows are keeping me considerably warmer tonight than my drafty old woodies ever would have. I will sleep soundly tonight in spite of the knowledge that I have befouled the landscape. | ||
| alison Citizen Username: Alison Post Number: 78 Registered: 6-2002 |
Give Virgilian a break. Some kind of architectural integrity is one of the things that makes Maplewood so unique and so beautiful. When people come here, they marvel at the gracious older homes. They marvel that we don't have tons of splitlevels interspersed (like a South Orange or a Cranford). They marvel at our downtown that has a visual integrity. Care has been taken. It's that care that Virgilian is talking about. And, whether you realize it or not, there are many others who support that care... and efforts of organizations like the Village Alliance who help store owners thoughtfully design their storefronts, etc. etc. Windows are often one of the key design elements in a home. Ours, for instance, have diamonds featured in the top half of the window. They're painted in a dark color to highlight them. We're one of the houses that people notice on the main street. One of the houses that people point to and appreciate. There are many ways to make a house more airtight and more efficient. Often new windows are a salesman's dream and a snowjob. There are people who fix old wood windows, and you can purchase snap-in wood storms that keep windows airtight. Too many bungled renovations, and even Maplewood could become something for a Joni Mitchell song. | ||
| luv2cruise Citizen Username: Luv2cruise Post Number: 146 Registered: 12-2002 |
How do you know they're not pointing to your house saying "gee, look how ugly those painted diamonds are" This wasn't meant as a negative, just a question. There's nothing like being on the ocean! | ||
| tjohn Citizen Username: Tjohn Post Number: 2056 Registered: 12-2001 |
People replace old windows with vinyl windows because it is the lowest-cost solution to a problem of worn-out and drafty windows. For many people, financial reality trumps good taste or architectural purity. On the other hand, I have seen some beautiful work done by people who can afford architects to help them with all of the little architectural details. In any case, if you have a house with generic double-hung windows and you replace them with decent Andersen windows, it looks just fine. It is only those houses that have unique windows that lose something if those windows are replaced with modern double-hungs. | ||
| tjohn Citizen Username: Tjohn Post Number: 2057 Registered: 12-2001 |
Alison, To the extent that Maplewood still has most of the original housing stock tells me that people have pretty consistently been able to afford maintain their homes and not that we are somehow better or "more tasteful" than people in other towns. I have noticed that in those cases where new homes have been built either on subdivided lots or to replace a house destroyed by fire or something that these homes are not architecturally consistent with the surrounding homes. | ||
| notehead Citizen Username: Notehead Post Number: 840 Registered: 5-2001  |
For what it's worth: while "nicer" or more architecturally appropriate windows may be more expensive, I have found that windows really are not terribly difficult to put in yourself, if you're feeling intrepid. You may have to read the directions 20 times to make sure you understand what to do, or even ask a handy friend for help, but you can save a lot of cash. If all you have to pay for is the windows, then perhaps you can afford to get nicer ones. | ||
| alison Citizen Username: Alison Post Number: 79 Registered: 6-2002 |
The reason that Maplewood has most of its housing stock is twofold: luck and good zoning. My point was that there are places, such as Maplewood, that have consistently valued the quality of their housing stock. And windows are an important element in the architecture of these homes. | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 162 Registered: 7-2001 |
By the way, most heat loss is through ceilings. Windows, walls are not as important as most people think, heat-loss-wise. Insulate your ceiling, your attic. | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 163 Registered: 7-2001 |
and tjohn, Crummy Andersen windows are the absolute worst for most Maplewood houses. Please do better if you live near me. I want to live on a nice block. | ||
| harold Citizen Username: Harold Post Number: 170 Registered: 5-2001 |
Hey, Virgilian, know why lots of homes in the Hilton section have vinyl or aluminum siding? Because its better than spending thousands of bucks every few years to have them painted. Know why they also have vinyl replacement windows? Because they save money on heating bills. THINK! THINK!!!! | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 164 Registered: 7-2001 |
Harold, Okay, let me try to think. Okay: How is the siding better, if it lowers the quality of the house? If you're talking about immediate savings, I understand. But what if you take a great house and ruin it the way you describe? You've thrown away the value it had, to anyone who might value old houses. Why not just buy a ruined house instead in a well-spoilt area and save, save, save for the savings amonst neighbors who also save this way(as in most of our poor state,) instead of tender emotional flowers like myself who delight in unique irreplaceable surroundings and hate to see them lost? | ||
| tjohn Citizen Username: Tjohn Post Number: 2059 Registered: 12-2001 |
Virgilian, Start paying people to use products that meet your standards. I doubt you will encounter much resistance. | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 165 Registered: 7-2001 |
Harold: and I actually have no problem at all with vinyl siding and vinyl windows in an area already full of them-- it's the neighborhood's feel and it's fine. Here's my issue: There are people who would never dream of encasing their architecturally fascinating homes in vinyl, plastic, aluminum, etc. who yet put plastic, vinyl, aluminum, windows in them. I don't get it--very expensive large well detailed houses, of stone, brick, wood, slate, tile, etc. but somehow the "windows" don't seem to merit attention materially. It's somewhat mystifying; I think maybe it's the fact that there's so much marketing of the inferior windows around, and the fact that someone down the block gouged his house's eyes out first, and they're cheap, so who cares. | ||
| virgilian Citizen Username: Virgilian Post Number: 166 Registered: 7-2001 |
tjohn, My standards are just an echo of standards people in town used to have, and the standards that kept the town lovely. They are being lowered year by year: you have a point here. Your other point is good too: people should take responsiblity for paying for the correct maintenance and upkeep befitting the house they've purchased and the community they've become a part of. Don't drag Maplewood down into the mire of uncared-for "low maintenance" putrescence around us in New Jersey. | ||
| tjohn Citizen Username: Tjohn Post Number: 2060 Registered: 12-2001 |
Actually, I agree with you. It's just a bit unfair to those people who legitimately cannot afford wood siding and wood windows. | ||
| sullymw Citizen Username: Sullymw Post Number: 216 Registered: 5-2001 |
virgilian...do you have facts or are you just making an assumption about how vinyl windows affect property values? |
