I think you are referring to "colonial bars." Our home has them and most of the homes in our sub have them. Some of the homes in our sub being built now do not have them and I think they look a little plain with the style of homes we have. I agree with you that they are not suited for all homes. My pet peeve is the builder in this sub who seems to have never heard of symmetry or consistency, but that is another story...

The colonial revivial 6/6 muntin or 8/8 muntin (which isn't particularly authentic if you look at historic houses) is probably the most common style in America for relatively standard construction in standard sizes. I've worked on a couple of projects where the between-the-glass grille in 6/6 or 8/8 was cheaper than no grille and much cheaper than any other divided lite style. And of course much cheaper than true divided light or simulated divided lite with the muntins on the glass surface. I wanted to spec 2/2 for one project and 3/3 for the other because they were most appropriate for the houses in question but they were off the table for financial reasons.

It's not just you, Melle. They look bad on many homes. They also tend to look pretty fake, which looks bad.

well in our case we had several original/earlier windows with true divided lites, and couple new ones with simulated, and couple with no dividers:)

For the sake of continuity-and for the lack of resouces lol-we chose to go with grids again. Whatever was supplied by the GC as a part of our agreement frankly looks cheap..glass without grids would look better already, but it makes sense from the outside. The French door we decided to put in and did our research on (later decision) looks much better.

But of course true dividers that drove it all in the first place -they are the best.

They don't comply with the current code though-you need minimum double glass in CA. So...if i's just windows you can do it. We couldn't afford double glass, and true lites, all the etcetera, having to pay for all the rest of remodel too. And we did want the house to make sense from all the angles..:)

Grids don't irritate me somehow..what took some adjustment is not having windowsills in most houses..I grew up having windowsills, and I kinda miss them.

We do have a couple of windowsills now in our place..yes, they're on the windows with true divided lites..))

White vinyl does irritate me some.

But so many small things could be better, to me, that I just add it to that "whatever" list. I don't like vents, outlets, any button on the wall that's actually useful lol..well whatever. You make desicion that you can make under the circumstances..the rest you either accept or decide to alot funds and redo to your liking. And it's a priority thing. As much as I'd want higher quality windows or closet doors or vent grilles-other things, they're more important. On my scale right now.

(We have a Spanish ranch and I wouldn't say that grids look wrong just by being grids..it's a quality of the window thing..the white vinyl, the fake lines etc. Otherwise it can be very appropriate for that style. The grids themselves.