Finally Ordered Windows--got a big discount!

First bid: $65000 Andersen A series

Second bid: $53600 for Andersen Series 400

Third bid: $55000 (before tax).  Andersen A series stormwatch windows.  Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

We have decided to tinker with the finish on our window package, with an aim to keep the Andersen Architectural product, but bring the price down.  Our original bid was for 19 mahogany interior, double hung, hurricane impact windows.  We moved to white interior windows upstairs, and white in the bathrooms and kitchen.  And all the other windows and patio doors will be cherry.  

I am managing the subs and do not have the rehab running under a general contractor (GC).  So here's how we are doing this: my landscaper happens to be a GC.  He leads the team that recently took down trees and shrubs around the property (mentioned in a previous blog post).  

As we were talking with Jack, he said he has a resource at the Pro Desk at Home Depot who could present our windows to the bid room.  We'd looked at this product at our local lumber yard, and had also gone to the other big box stores to look at and operate each brand of window we could find.  We really liked the look and feel of the Andersen product.  I read dozens of reviews.  And we contemplated going with a lower end product.  However, when the bid room came back with the bid for 19 windows and 5 doors, at a lower grade product, the bid came back very close to the original bid.  So, what was the point?  

We sat on it while we worked on gutting the kitchen, and getting the electrician in, both aspects that are in the 'must do' aspects of this remodel.  The next time we talked with Maria, the rep at the Pro Desk, she asked if we wanted to take a color chip board to the house and see if we wanted to go with another product.  We saw that we could down-grade to cherry from the sky-high mahogany finish.  And we thought about how the woods in the downstairs great-room would harmonize with the wood finish on the windows, but in the bedrooms, it wouldn't matter nearly so much.  All of this took the price of the windows down $10,000.  

3-4 weeks from now, Andersen will deliver this bundle to the property.