Okay- maybe it's just me, but I found one of the most daunting aspects of Tiny House preparation to be actually ordering the big ticket items for the Tiny House. Sure, some things were really easy (Tumbleweed makes ordering the trailer simple, and
Joe Coover has made the process of ordering SIPs for the TH really easy and enjoyable), but other big ticket items (specifically the roof and windows) really aren't set up for direct consumer purchase, and so took a little more work for me than I expected.
Really, I guess it boils down to social anxiety on my part- maybe you could just call up a sales rep from any big box home improvement store and get the information you need. I don't know because I hate calling people on the phone. For me, it's much, much less stressful to find the information I need on the internet and then either place my order digitally or in person. So, if you're like me and you're trying to order some windows, here's how we did it:
Various sources on the internet seemed to indicate that the Tumbleweed standard was aluminum clad pine venting windows from
Jeld-Wen. Since we were using the Tumbleweed Elm as the basic model for the TH, we decided this was as good a place as any to start. Searching Jeld-Wen's website, we found that their "Tradition Plus" line was the aluminum clad pine option.
We browsed various windows that Jeld Wen offered in tradition plus, choosing the types we wanted (we aren't huge fans of awning windows, opting instead where ever possible for double hung), and using the "Design" and "Glass Options" tabs on each product page to make the aesthetic decisions (antique brass or desert sand hardware? External color and internal color? What type of mock-window pane divisions, and in what pattern? etc) and choose the appropriate glass type. We made careful note of each of these options on a piece of paper while browsing so that we could make sure that each option was available for each window.
Next, we had to decide on the size of each window. At this point, we were still working with
Joe to design our TH SketchUp model, and in order to complete it, we needed to know what size windows we wanted. Under the "Product Overview" tab on each product page on the Jeld Wen website, there was a PDF for product sizing. This PDF listed the various sizes that each window came in. (You can probably get windows custom made to different sizes somewhere out there, but we're working on a budget here, and windows were already a big ticket item on that budget, so we were trying to avoid any additional expense...). Most importantly, this PDF also specifies the appropriate
Rough
Opening or "RO" for each window size. This is the size of the opening in your wall that you will need in order to properly fit the window. Using these RO specifications, we sent some drawings off to Joe indicating the size and placement of window openings so that he could incorporate them into the Google SketchUp model.
After that, we compiled a list of all the windows we wanted, their respective sizes, ROs, and the design and glass options we had selected for each. We contacted several local building supply companies by email with this list and asked for a quote. We were surprised that there was a huge amount of difference between the quotes (as much as a few thousand dollars), and went with the least expensive. We were ordering well in advance of when we would need the windows, so the delivery time didn't really matter to us, but it was going to be a few weeks at least. And that's where we are now: just waiting for them to arrive. (It's actually a good thing that they're not here yet, as we haven't really finished clearing out space in the barn for them yet)
So, that's how we ordered our windows! Now, on to ordering the roof (or at least figuring out how to do so)?
