Hi there. We are looking for both replacement windows and new construction windows for our 1949 lake cabin located in SE Kansas. We are wanting to build a west-facing addition that overlooks the lake; we are a good distance from the lake but the afternoon sun reflects on our cabin and really heats it up in starting in the mid to late afternoon. While we’re doing this work, we would like to replace the existing windows that will remain after the addition.

For budget context, we paid a little over $40k for our cabin five years ago; the bathroom needed gutted and is worth more now that we have it fixed up but this is obviously not the Taj Mahal and our window selection needs to reflect that. Also, it is a weekend getaway, not a full time residence. We were hoping to find a window that is a step above what we might find on the shelf at the big box stores.

I’ve done a little shopping so far and found an Anderson 100 series single hung window (36x54) for $460. The Alside person I talked with said to estimate $350 wholesale pricing for a similar size double hung Mezzo window. We are going to go to a Marvin showroom tomorrow. I thought the Mezzo window looked promising but then I searched on here to find that it is not recommended by many peoppe on here. But that generally appears to be in the context of a full time residence.

With an overwhelming number of options out there, I would love to get some experienced recommendations for window lines to look at for our project. Thanks!