Deciding to significantly improve your home is a major decision anytime, but in a soft housing market it is even more challenging. You probably don’t want to, or can’t sell your home right now. But to decide to invest in new windows now, to make your home more attractive, more energy efficient, more livable, and reduce the required maintenance is really tough to do.

You know new windows will improve the value of your home. You know new windows will make your home more comfortable and more enjoyable. You know new windows will make your home more secure. You know new windows will save you money on your energy bills. You know new windows will show your friends and neighbors that you are truly concerned with the environment, that you do try to do the right “green” thing. You know new vinyl, high performance; energy saving windows are virtually maintenance free. So what are you waiting for?

I can answer that – to paraphrase a recent past President – “It’s the economy stupid”. You are worried that the payback will be insufficient to compensate you for the investment. You are worried that your home may depreciate in value even further. You are worried that the economy reverses itself again and starts heading back towards recession, and everything gets even worse. You are just plain worried.

All of those things are valid concerns – but – how about a little dose of reality. The economy has been improving for well over a year now. Not great, but steadily improving. History tells us that it would be extremely unusual for us to slip back into another recession.

As far as you and your family’s comfort while you remain in your home – you have to put a value on that – but you know there is a value there. Are your energy bills going down recently? I don’t think so - and you will save energy if you replace your windows with high performance windows – how much you save will depend on a lot of factors – but there is no question you will save. And the maintenance and appearance of your current windows wont change on it’s own.

So bite the bullet, take action and make the decision – replace your windows NOW not later. Get on line and do the research as to who’s windows you want, and what dealer you want to deal with to get the job done, but do it. And yes, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.