Hi Thanks again for your input, red_lover. We are hoping to find a way to keep the costs down, so may need to have some of the storage behind plain closet doors and/or curtain with others behind nicer looking doors as in the third image on the link. My FIL built a wall of storage in his Master bedroom using IKEA products. It looks attractive and was not that costly, although I have not always found IKEA products sturdy. The advantage of having storage around the perimeter instead of a more walk in closet style storage as you are suggesting, is you do not waste space for an aisle in your designated storage area. The access point to get the stuff is from the living area of the basement (i.e. near the ping pong table). This was pointed out to us early in the planning stage by an architect we consulted with. It does make sense to not waste floor space for storage. However, reach in closets/built-ins on the other hand, do lead to cost and aesthetic challenges as mentioned. The room I show the storage in, is our best part of the basement for storage. The other parts of the basement are spoken for/and not changeable at this stage of construction. Also, the other parts of the basement mainly have above grade windows, so I would not want to make them into storage due to natural light. If we did carve out a decent sized walk in storage room in the area of basement shown, we would have to forgo the ping pong table, and the kids are keen on this feature. We would also have to enclose some of the basement windows into the storage room, which I was trying to avoid. Hopefully, we can find a cost effective storage for this perimeter storage. I guess I will start with IKEA. Anyone else used IKEA for built-in storage? Carol

Hi Terry, Not sure why, as things went back on their own. What I did was to open another window and was working in the 2nd window because it came up almost normal, but when I went back to the 1st window, that would be the one with the problem. Things are back to almost what they were. I couldn't get the sounds to work, but here's the funny part... I had the sound off. LOL! Thanks for your help. I did the F11 on purpose to see what happened and it replicated my problem. Maybe I did hit that key accidently. I'd have to be waaaaaaay off on my key strokin' thought to be that far off. LOL! I got it squared away. Take care, Aurelius

Another quarantine project -I actually just had new screens made at our local hardware store. Ours were thirty years old, some frames were a bit bent, some screening was torn, etc. They were a bargain and look amazing now! IdaClaire, I don't think you need a special tool. This took us a while to learn, but now we are fast at removing our screens. Heres's what you do: Using the two tabs along the bottom edge of the screen, pull STRAIGHT up vertically. Visualize sliding the top edge of the screen into the recess of the frame above it. There are small springs in the top edge of the screen frame that keep them wedged into the frame, and when you lift straight up, those springs compress and you gain a half-inch or so of space at the bottom of the screen. Then lift the bottom edge of the screen out and over the tiny metal lip that holds the screen in. Now you can angle the bottom out and slide the screen down and out. Hope that helps.

"wood pella windows as the gold standard for energy efficiency and quality" Just to let you know, Pella is about the worst in those regards. Avoid Pella. As to wood vs vinyl, certainly there is an aesthetic factor, and a wood-clad Marvin or Kolbe window will be beautiful. It is up to you whether that is worth the increased cost upfront for the windows (both Marvin and Kolbe wood clad windows are very costly), and the decreased efficiency. Many people think it's worth it - or Marvin and Kolbe wouldn't sell so many of them. And many people think it's not worth it, and Okna and Softlte vinyl windows are excellent. You need to go to showrooms and see them for yourself. You also need to decide on things like casement vs double hung - casements tend to be more energy efficient, but double-hung may be more suitable for your 1968 house. Also, double pane or triple pane - what part of the country do you live in, what is the climate? Edited to add: I have Marvin wood-clad casement windows. No problems with sweating, spacers or seals. Sweating is often due to the homeowner having the humidity too high indoors in winter. Also no problem with cleaning whatsoever other than the screens are a PITA to remove.