Backer rod is a nice trick and definitely makes for a cleaner job, but I’m not convinced it’s always necessary unless you’ve got those big, uneven gap...

That’s been my experience too. I did low-e replacements in our 70s ranch, and honestly, the biggest thing I noticed was not feeling that cold draft wh...

Couldn’t agree more—tried saving a few bucks with “coated” hardware once, and it was a mess after two winters. For tape, I’ve had better luck rounding...

That’s a pretty fair rundown of what I noticed after my own upgrade. The dimmer light caught me off guard at first, especially on those overcast days ...

I ran into this exact thing when I replaced the windows in my 90s ranch. I got all excited about argon, but the installer pointed out some of my old f...

Couldn’t agree more about picking your battles. I spent way too much time taping every inch on my first window—by the third one, I just did the corner...

When I redid our living room windows, I got sucked into the whole trim debate too. Ended up going simple just to keep things moving, but what really m...

Yeah, curtains are mostly cosmetic in my experience too. One more thing to consider—weatherstripping tape around the window sashes. It's cheap, easy t...

Adjustable sweeps are a solid choice, definitely worth the effort. I've also found that pairing them with weatherstripping around the frame edges help...

I've had pretty good luck with weatherstripping too, especially around older windows. Another thing that worked surprisingly well for me was rope caul...