Considering Eze-Breeze Windows For Our Screened Porch

The favorite spot of Natalie each morning during the late Spring, Summer and early Fall is in one place in our house:  our screened porch.  I can find her out there most of the time enjoying a cup of coffee, reading her kindle or sorting through her email.

But the season isn't too terribly long.  In fact, it has been more than a month that she's been out there and that's too bad.  However, our neighbors have seemed to solve this and made their screened porch a lot more like a real 3 season room and less like a screened porch.

They installed these things called Eze-Breeze windows.  They are these '4 track' windows that are made up of what I'd call something akin to shower curtains.  You can move the panels up and down and have the screens open to the rest of the space.  Here's a shot from the Eze Breeze website that shows how far you can push the windows:

These windows really cut down the wind in a big way.  They don't quite seal the whole place up weather tight, but they do a great job of getting the temperature under control.  And...they keep the dust out/down completely - which is a super important byproduct.

Our neighbors also installed some sweet heaters, so that's also helping make their room warm.

As for the windows, they are fit from the outside and mounted to the existing framing.  The problem that we have is that our sills have some little decorations or flourishes that make the framing not a simple process to set the flanges against.  You can see the current multi-step sill in the photos above and below.

There are a few ways to skin this cat - the first (and maybe most daunting) being to modify the existing sills and window openings.  Below, you can see that there's about a 1/4" overhang that would need to (likely) be trimmed off.  That's not an easy cut.

But, I think there's also a way to *add* something like a cleat to the *inside* of the opening.  Imagine a 2x2" piece that is mounted to the inside with the flange of the Eze-Breeze mounted to *that* cleat.  Seems like an easier way forward, but also cuts down the opening of the window by about 1.5" in height and width.

Before I order these, I'm going to measure them for the 2nd time.  I took some initial measurements, but I want to be certain that I got them right, so I'll do it all over again.  You can order the windows at various places online and even Menards.  I'll do a little bit of price shopping this Winter and have them arrive before Spring shows up, so we can schedule a carpenter to help install them.