Window Shopping

We’re going to need new windows.

Don’t worry, nothing broke. We bought our abode knowing that the windows were as old as the hills, and that it was only a matter of time until we would have to replace them. Whether we do it in phases or all at once remains to be seen. We got one estimate to do the whole house and it was some unseemly number like $15,000. Now, I’m sure that was high and we could do much better. We could probably do the whole house for less than $10,000.

My question is when should we do it?

One couple we’re friends put new windows in as they bought the house. They pay the cost each month, just like having a bigger mortgage for as long as it takes to pay off. My first thought was to wait until January 2012 and then take out a home equity loan to do the windows and put a half-bathroom in the alcove at the top of our staircase. That way, we could use this next year to save up our money and replenish the bank account in the year after we depleted it to buy said alcove, staircase and aged windows.

What do you guys think?

We’ve already gotten through half of a rough winter, so I don’t feel like there’s any particular hurry there. Although, admittedly, I hate that our oil-burning furnace costs us a vicious fortune. It burns 6 gallons a day, or so I’m told by an oil company lady. At $3.50 per gallon, that’s $21 a day in oil, not counting the cost of transforming the oil into heat. But I digress.

Would you do the windows sooner or later? Do them in phases or all at once? Do it as its own project? Or wrap into a bigger house project, say during the summer 2012?