When we were designing our Big House in the Woods, we knew that we wanted to fill it with windows. All of the homes we have ever lived in had the basic amount of windows. They would have a small double window in the living room, each bedroom had a standard single window, and sunlight in the bathroom was considered a luxury. Living like that drove us crazy in the first house we bought.
Once Time, We Lived in a Cave…Sort Of
In our first house, the living room was on the back of the house and it had one double window. That window faced North so sunlight never poured in. To top it off, we had to build a roof over the deck in the backyard to make it functional and that ultimately shaded the living room window completely. The living room became a cave. (I’m sure the fact that we had the brilliant idea to paint all the walls burnt orange had nothing to do with it either.)
The only rooms in our first house that received any sunlight were the two spare rooms and the laundry room. In the winter, when it was too cold to go outside, we would start feeling claustrophobic very quickly.
House #2- A Step Up
The second house we bought was a little better. The living room had a double window like the first house AND it was taller. That meant you could actually see out of the window while sitting on the couch. The den on the back of the house had a sliding glass door that faced West. We got more West sun beaming in through that door than we could have ever wanted but I can guarantee you this…we never complained. The extra bedrooms had adequate windows, the master bedroom had two windows, and there was even a large window in the master bathroom.
While living in our second house, we realized how windows can change the way we feel. On cold, winter days, it took longer to feel claustrophobic because the sun was pouring in and it was easy to see outside. We didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on us. And on summer days when the mosquitoes were thicker than the humidity, we could enjoy looking at the outdoors from the comfort of our air-conditioned living room.
How to Make Your Entire House into a Sun Porch without Spending a Ton
Here’s a fact: windows are expensive.
As we shopped for windows for our new home, we knew that it was going to be expensive. We priced standard-sized bedroom windows at a local big box store and found that one small window was going to cost about $175. We were wanting a lot of windows. At that price, we would spend roughly $5,000 and we still wouldn’t have what we really wanted.
Since we were building this house debt-free, we wanted to find a way to get as many windows as we could while saving as much cash as we could. Plus, we wanted floor to ceiling windows…we wanted lots of light and we wanted our babies to be tall enough to see out of the windows before their 5th birthday!
HUGE Windows for a Tiny Price
One time, several years before we drew up the plans for our Big House in the Woods, we were living in a camper on ten acres we own in Western Arkansas. It was just for a short time but it’s a loooong story. The point is, we found a neat business that sells overstock windows.
Overstock windows=lower priced windows
We were able to buy huge 7ft by 7ft windows for only $175 each! We bought 7 of those huge windows! They are triple wide and bring a lot of light into our house. We also bought one window that is 5ft wide and 7 feet tall for our kids’ bedroom for only $150. Finally, we purchased 4 windows that are standard width and 7 feet tall. Each of those windows were $125. We used those in tighter spaced like the master bathroom and an upstairs bedroom that has slanted ceilings.
That is a total of $1,875 for all of the large windows in our home. That is an incredible savings! To top it all off, the owner of that business gave us one of those single windows for free. He said it was a gift for our daughter. So, that brings the total down to $1,750!
The Story Behind the Overstock Windows
The owner of the overstock window business told us that a semi load of windows was headed for Florida. The windows were made for a condominium complex but the builder went bankrupt. So, they sold them to this overstock company.
I don’t know how accurate that story is but it works for me! Otherwise, we would have had to custom order all of our windows and we would have spent waaaay more than $1,750!
Father-in-Law To The Rescue
We purchased the windows for our dream home 6 YEARS before we actually built it! We were planning and preparing in hopes that we would one day find land that we loved. So, what were we going to do with all of the windows for 6 years?
Thankfully, my father-in-law helped us and stored them for all that time. It’s a great blessing to have family who will always back us up and help us out when we need it. My father-in-law is that kind of guy. He’s a problem solver.
He also loaded all those windows up and drove them 3.5 hours down to our land when we were ready to install them! On a scale of 1-10…I’d give him a 10. 🙂
A Glass House in the Making
When we were designing our dream home, we put windows EVERYWHERE. Even our shower has windows. We were building our house in the woods and we wanted to enjoy them whether we were inside or out. When we were drawing the plans for our Big House in the Woods, we had several meetings with our framer and with an architect to make sure it was going to work. We had to make sure we had enough room for an adequate amount of studs so the house wouldn’t fall down! The windows were taking up a lot of the wall space but we were determined to make it work. Never again would we live in a dark house. We had purchased five beautiful wooded acres and we wanted to look at them ALL. THE. TIME.
A Note About Energy Efficiency
Some of you might be thinking that our electric bills must be through the roof with all of these windows but it’s not. All of them are “Low-e – Argon Gas” windows and our electric bill is just as low as all of the other houses we have ever owned.
So, what’s it like to live with so many windows?
I have to say that it first it was very odd to me. Many of our windows do not have curtains so it felt like we were living in a fish bowl at night. If we were living in town, we would definitely have curtains covering all the windows but we are in the woods, so it’s different. Now, we are completely used to it! However, we have lots of exterior lights that we can use to flood the areas around the house if we hear a weird noise outside.
Also, we love all the sunlight during the day. We rarely turn on any lights until the sun goes down. Even our stairwell is completely lit by a tubular skylight on the roof!
What’s the Take-Away Here?
Always look around. There are small businesses out there who do a great favor to anyone who wishes to build their dream home for less.