A San Antonio couple is betting that windows are the hidden culprit behind soaring energy bills, and they are building a locally owned business to prove it. Gabby and Jonathan, owners of First Choice Windows and Home Exteriors, shared their story on the latest episode of The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie and published September 15, 2026. The episode, recorded at the San Antonio Home and Garden Show, opens with a striking comparison: a rental under 2,000 square feet running $400 to $500 a month in electricity, versus a 3,200 square foot new build in San Antonio running $150 to $200.
Jonathan’s diagnosis is blunt: it’s the windows. For homeowners, that claim carries significant weight. Windows are often overlooked in energy-efficiency discussions, yet they can account for a substantial portion of a home’s heating and cooling loss. The couple’s experience suggests that even newer, larger homes can benefit from better glazing, while older or poorly sealed properties may be bleeding money through inefficient frames and glass.
The episode traces how a husband-and-wife team built a locally owned alternative in a city Gabby calls the home of small businesses, yet where she could not find a single locally owned window shop when she went looking. Their company, First Choice Windows and Home Exteriors, has expanded from First Choice Window Solutions into siding, sunrooms, fences, and a roofing partnership with Texas Roof Guardians.
Listeners get several distinct threads, including why new builds, even million-dollar Toll Brothers homes fitted with Ply Gem, may not deliver the window quality buyers assume. The conversation also covers how blower door and pressure tests expose air loss through doors and windows, and why the couple warns homeowners away from tackling installations themselves. Jonathan offers a homeowner test that requires no tools at all. “Just standing next to the window during the summer… if you’re feeling that heat come through or if you’re feeling that cold front come through, it’s probably necessary to get something done,” he tells McKenzie.
Gabby describes the moment the math clicked for her after moving into their sunnier, larger new build: “That’s like a $300 difference in this bill here. And he was like, it’s the windows. And I was like, are you serious?” The deeper conversation covers craftsmanship gaps in modern construction, the counterweight-and-rope mechanisms still hiding in 1940s, 50s, and 60s wood windows around San Antonio, and the leak calls that followed heavy rain events, including flooding in Kerrville.
Jonathan, whose father has run a fence, patio cover, and concrete business for more than 30 years, explains why First Choice sells name brands like Andersen and Pella at lower prices: no 75-truck fleet, no 20 offices, and lower marketing overhead. Gabby, who left a corporate learning and development role in multifamily property management to build the back end of the company, frames the mission as keeping home improvement affordable for buyers already stretched by a 30-year mortgage. The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard.
