[John Rogers]

I would suggest to check local codes to see what they say about window replacement. I live in CA which is as weird as it gets but they do say in our city code if the original size of the window is not changed then no permits or inspections. This has been taken to mean leaving the original frame in means no changes. I doubt that on the east coast that many houses are made of stucco so frame removal is much easier. With stucco (mud) the stuff gets flaked off and ends up a mess and then has to be patched and so on. This happened last winter with my next door neighbor as he had an addition put on 15 years or so ago and used aluminum framed windows which was not smart. When we had our worst storm this past winter his glass blew out (movable and fixed) and his interior wall got soaked, carpet ruined, ETC. Our vinyl windows never budged or even let any noise in. Anyways it took a contractor 3 days to fix every thing.