[upthesaukee]

Acres Per Second --- the house started out as a 40 x 8 trailer with a 22 x 8 porch. My fingers would fall off before I could tell you all the changes that have taken place, but we now have a 10 room Gambrel with a solid Oak circular staircase to get to the 3 BRs upstairs. There are 7 5'w x 4'h windows across the front, 3 across the end of the LR, and 1 1/2 across the back of the LR. There is 1 each on each end of the upstairs. There is 1 in the kitchen, 1 in the laundry room, and 4 in the DR. There is a two panel sliding door off our BR to the porch.

The whole house sits on piers, and thus there is crawl space underneath that can get mighty chilly, and the furnace ducts run under and do keep it warm enough to not freeze (knock on wood). We do have a wood stove but it needs help when it gets as cold as it is now. The windows are all circa 1980, and you can literally feel the cold soak in (all are double pane insulated glass).

All that glass was fine as a summer place, or weekend year round retreat. As a year round residence, it can get really cold in the winter.

My advise...Don't just think of now as to what kind of construction and types of windows, but look at what will happen down the road. Will those windows lose some of their efficiency? Will fuel costs make them a cash depository? Look at the long term as well as the short term. Is there a way to make it more heat efficient and energy efficient in cold weather, especially if you are not going to be around in the winter.

the coolness of our house in the summer is amazing, and we added a circular fan in the LR and on the porch, and with all those windows, we can open them and catch any breeze that may be blowing, or even just "wafting" up the hillside to our house.

Just a few thoughts for you to ponder, if you haven't already thought of these.