I had already decided that I wanted Anlins windows and now needed an company to install them.
I got quotes from several 5 star rated companies that were authorized to install Anlin and Distinctive Home improvement still gave me the lowest quote. The Owner Jeff was regularly involved and worked with the office staff, installers & myself to make sure that I understood what our options were and to get the windows ordered
When the windows came in, Jeff contacted me and asked if I was available the next day for installation. He indicated it would be at most a 5 to 6 hour installation job. The appointment was set at 9:00 a.m., and I got a call at 8:50 that they were outside. At 11:00 am (two and a half hours later) they had cleaned everything up and we're leaving. That's an average of about 40 minutes per window. Very quick, good customer service, super friendly, and it looks like the installation was done in a professional manner. From the very beginning when they contacted me at the office, through the very end when they were cleaning up and leaving the job site, everyone made me feel valued.
The windows that I chose, if you would like to research them yourself are
(3) Anlin, Catalina windows (with Sunmatrix and sound package).
(1) Anlin, Panoramic window (with Sunmatrix, sound package and obscured glass)
The Catalina Windows have a bigger border as you can see in the pictures, so you will get less light into the house. But because they're bigger windows that does not matter. We chose the Catalina windows for the Living room and Bedrooms.
For the Bathroom we chose the panoramic window. Take a look at the small bathroom window and you will see that one window pane is bigger than the other. So it will let more light in but in our opinion it does not look as good. But comparing both pictures you can decide which you like better.
You will also notice that we had the Sun Matrix and Sound Package.
The Sun Matrix adds an additional layer of silver something or other, which basically makes them even better at heat and cold efficiency (Better e-rating). As in added benefit it also puts a cool tint which softens the sunlight that comes into the house. All of the Anlin Windows come standard with a rating of .20. We upgraded to the Sun Matrix which dropped the rating to a .16 (lower is better). And they have a third option called Sun Shield which drops the rating one more point to .15. It was not very much, I think a total of a couple hundred dollars for all four windows to drop it to that 0.16. that made sense. It would have been about the same amount of money to do the third layer and it only dropped it by .1 so that did not make sense. In the past we could feel the heat coming through the window midway through the living room. Our air conditioning system could not keep that on hot summer days and the temperature would slowly rise in the house. They finished installing this morning at 11:30 a.m. . By that time it was 90° outside and it was 87° inside. With clipped on the air conditioner and the temperature instantly began to drop. It's now 72°! We can't feel any heat coming from the main window!
The sound package is a really cool thing as well. I don't remember how much it added but it was not much. What it does is makes one of the window panes thicker than the standard size. Because sound is a wavelength, each thickness of glass filters out a different wavelength of sound. This allows for a much greater reduction in noise. i live in a community where everybody seems to have a Harley-Davidson or race car. The noise level was intense. The reduction in sound has been dramatic! We instantly noticed a difference.
For the bathroom window you will also notice that we chose the obscure glass. You know the stuff, it makes it to where people can't see in from the outside.
So, that about sums it up. With Distinctive Home Improvement got great service, a great price, excellent windows and an excellent installation. Additionally, you can compare the pictures to see the difference in the frames of the windows to decide which you like better, Catalina or panoramic, or you can Mitch match them like we did. Putting the better looking Catalina on your big windows & using the panoramic for the smaller window to let more light it. For us, the Sun Matrix and the sound package were no-brainers.
I'm sure at some point an issue will arise. That's just the way life is! When it does I'll make sure to come back here and update this post on how everything was handled. read more