In a historic district, or if you have a historic house, the Historic Commission can and will tell you what to do when it comes to anything that changes the exterior of your home. That includes windows, doors and storm doors but not paint colors. Not yet anyway.

When I wanted new windows for the front of my house, the HC put me through hell. The windows had to be wood. Not vinyl over wood, all wood. And with true divided light, not looks-like. That means a wood frame between individual panes of glass. That's not strong enough to support an insulated window so forget saving energy, looking "authentic" is more important. And I couldn't get full-size screens either, I had to pay for custom-made removable half-screens. For what six windows cost me, I could have done twice as many insulated vinyl windows.

And yes, they do know what you are doing--when you apply for a permit, L&I will check the historic status of your property and if you don't have the HC approval stamp on your application, it'll be rejected.

Yeah, declaring us a historic district is a great idea--NOT.