We’ve been impatiently waiting to reach this milestone for what seems like forever. The windows and doors had been in a warehouse for about two months -- due to delays in the schedule. As we mentioned previously, Loewen Windows and Doors are extremely well made and solid.

With significant areas of glazing, we felt that until the openings are filled that it would be very hard to get a true feeling of how the interior spaces will feel. The exterior patio (pictured above) is by far the best in my mind. Many of the other window openings do feel quite a bit smaller (compared to the rough openings), once all the visual clutter of mullions and interior screens are installed.

The swing and sliding doors still feel very good, even without the final tweaking for smoother operation. They are very high quality, which is important for doors that we will be using on a frequent basis.

We were interested in finding windows/doors which were high quality and energy efficient, as well as having a modern look with wood interior/exterior clad. Out of all the options we researched and priced over the past year, it came down to Kolbe & Kolbe, and Loewen. Both of these window manufacturers make an excellent mid to upper grade window, with Loewen perhaps slightly more refined. Loewen was a few thousand dollars more overall, but we are fairly certain the quality and finish will be worth it.

Loewen comes standard with a nice vertical grain fir interior and to top it off, we got triple pane glass on the big openings! It will not help much with solar heat gain, but the insulating value with the Heat Smart Plus System 3 (Loewen’s name for triple pane glazing) is much higher than a base double glazed window or door.

It would have been nice to have the big exterior folding or sliding door packs for the back and front patio, but it seems that they are still out of reach for our budget.