In my case, after steam cleaning the carpets, and a fresh coat of paint, it was mostly gone after the painting and all gone some weeks later when I came back to check with new tenants in place.

Part of me thinks a cheap solution could be skim coating the wood with some form of product to get it a bit smoother and then paint with a lower sheen.

All you want is to repair any sections you need to (you'll probably find some after you sand), sand it down just enough to remove obvious signs of wear, putty up and color the gaps, and seal in place with a thinned sealer coat of oil-based polyurethane and three more coats.

The aluminum frames look very thin which helps with the view, and a vinyl replacement would probably have thicker "framing" and would block some of that view.

@Nicole Frawley You need to grow thicker skin.

Paints in general are two coat products (after the surface has been primed).

After that I rolled on a coat of oil based Kilz to seal everything off.

I think we kept the thermostat on 65 or so, couldn't afford heat and groceries, so we kept a coat or sweater on most of the time.  

My standard, I think, is SAND, STAIN, and 2 COATS OF POLY. 

A fresh coat of paint doesnt stop heroine addicts and gangs.