Frugal-ish Solution

When we chopped down the overly tall bushes in the front of our windows, we discovered that our bedroom window sill was rotten.  Not just a little but a lot.  We visited a major home improvement store to come and access the situation and give us an estimate for new windows for the front of the house.  The guy came (2 hours late) walked around, hemmed and hawed, and finally told me they weren't allowed to put windows on a stucco house.  My argument was ~ they had just done our back windows less than 2 years ago...why did the policy change?  Then the excuses came, there was too much risk with stucco, too much work involved, etc...they couldn't do them.  We went back to the store, a couple of weeks later another guy came and looked ~ the guy who had done the windows 2 years ago, and said they could do them.  Another couple of weeks went by and the first guy called said he had the contract written up and would bring it for us to sign.  We weren't given a quote, or estimate over the phone ~ Greg told him to leave it at the store and we would go there (I wasn't real interested in waiting on this guy to show up on a Friday night).  We finally got the quote, which was higher for 4 windows than it had been for replacing 6 windows and a large door previously.  Greg finally got a breakdown for the costs and we discovered they were charging us windows, installation, wood for the sills (greatly exaggerated price) and additional installation for the window sills.  Needless to say, their windows, quote, high prices etc.  didn't fly with us. 

The window sills were the main problem ~ and mainly on our window.  So we headed to another large chain home improvement store and found window sill "wood" and the trim piece already grooved out and ready to install.  My handy dandy husband tackled the job on Sunday afternoon ~ our cost for the supplies for 2 window sills was $45 and add in a few more $$ for the caulk he needed to get.........sure beats $345 for materials plus at least that much for labor.  The "wood" is a manufactured product that won't rot, mold or mildew like wood can.  The cost was more than wood but this will only have to be done once.

Here are some pictures ~

the bushes hid a lot of damage ~ plus more was flaked off by Greg to see how deep it went

no more rotten sill

new sill in & front decorative piece clamped till the adhesive dries.

Now all that's left is painting the trim & caulking the inside part of the frame.

Great job Greg!
I was here for technical support ~ the gofer!