Santa Rosa, CA

Jesus Saves, but apparently not the building’s wooden siding or double hung windows. The rotunda windows still look good, but the windows on the far left and right all have that cheap looking plastic white patio chair look. These windows begin to blotch, deteriorate and become uglier and uglier only after a few years. The life span of vinyl windows is relatively short, regardless of the bogus advertising permeating everywhere.

Well adjusted and maintained wooden windows are not nearly as energy inefficient as vinyl propaganda contends. Plus wood is the only truly sustainable window option.

I restored my 75 year old windows. They look great, work perfectly–and they should be good for another 75 years. Unless someone comes along after I’m gone and destroys my good work with crappy vinyl. But hopefully by then most people will have learned the completely awful truth about vinyl.

The tasteless application of stucco over wooden siding as well as the vinyl window craze is doing as much damage to historic architecture as developers and speculators.