Window Replacement: Cost Effective Way to Invest in Home Value

My grandmother has lived in her home since the 1950s. When she moved in, they remodeled a bit to add a second bathroom and redo the plumbing. My grandfather passed on in the 1970s and since then there was little done in the way of inside maintenance although gram did fix things as they needed them such as the circuit breaker, the garbage disposal and she had the roof done. My dad would go over periodically and help her with things, and my uncle re-built her front steps because they rot. My ex-husband and I also painted her house with my brother and sister and their families but it was kind of a fiasco, and definitely not a professional job.

About three years ago, I noticed that gram had some water damage to her living room ceiling, and she told me it was because of her hot water system and the fact that the pipes hadn't been bled. She had had a man in to fix the problem but the cosmetic problems were still there.

I also noticed the inside of the house was kind of drafty, not to mention drab and depressing. She wasn't complaining, but instead, she had learned to modify the way she was living to accommodate the drafty house. She was carrying her space heater and a comforter throughout the house to accompany her wherever she went. In the winter, she would have my uncle come over and add plastic to the windows to keep out the worst drafts.

Now remarried, my hubby and I are in the home remodeling business and when I told him how depressing it was, he offered to paint the interior for her. She said it would be nice to have the house spruced up so we asked my aunt to take her in for a few weeks because the dust and seeing those guys work, would have killed her.

She had also asked us to add tile in the upstairs bathroom and fix a few things that were damaged, so we began by measuring and then giving her a quote.

On the day she left, we discussed replacing the windows. It would add maybe another $3,000 to $4,000 to her bill for about 24 windows, but we thought it was the right thing to do. It was a big expense and my aunt was at first a little put off by the money, but as she pulled out of the driveway my husband said, "We're doing it, even if we have to foot the bill. Gram shouldn't be living like that -she deserves to be warm." Fortunately, that night we got a call from my Aunt and Grandmother, and they told us, "Go for it."

It took us a few extra days to do the work for the windows. Many people think that replacing windows costs too much, but if you can find a local contractor to do the work - it is possible to make up that money in your next year or two in your heating and air conditioning costs; and for an average home the work can be done in less than a week.

Gram had had heavy drapes up over her windows before the remodel, but after we replaced her windows, we added louvered blinds. When she came home, she decided not to put up curtains, and instead, her house is much brighter because of it.

We painted over her dark wall paper, and upstairs, in the hall where the woodwork was dark, we painted it white and it then reflected the window light. Before the paint job, the hall was dark and dingy and now it is light and bright.

Now when I go over to grams in the winter time, the heat hits my nose as soon as I walk in. The walls are bright, her smile is wide, and her house is a home again. In fact, she admits to me that she keeps the house warmer because now she isn't "heating the outside."

I think she felt that she had been battling the elements and losing but with just a little bit of time and money, and some maintenance, her house is lighter, brighter and tighter. How do we value a home when we live in it compared to when we are trying to sell it. Many people do things to improve the value of their home a lot later than they should.

Gram says "The dust is down, the noise is down, and her heating bill is down." Now how could all of that bring a frown? The sad part is that we didn't do it sooner.

In three years, she has gained the money back on her investment not to mention the fact that the house is more sellable, and she is warmer, and much, much happier in her spruced up pad.