Loewen is the best of what you have listed. I know the Loewen dealer in Huntsville. Loewen makes really good stuff, but its pricey. Burt Dale owns the Marvin distributorship in Huntsville and he is also pricey. Pella in you market use to be Frank Day, but he sold out to a company in Indiana I think. Rumor has it, they are a train wreck. The Loewen dealer in your market is relatively new. Loewen practically pulled out of there when the market went bad. The current dealer runs pretty lean and I doubt they will have nearly as much of a mark-up as Marvin (Dale inc). Windsor is not a quality product. Its mid-level builder grade. The sales rep is pushing it for a reason. Could be they get higher margin/commission. Could be the manufacture is paying a spiff directly to the sales rep (not uncommon). Weather Shield use to be a good product when the old man was still running it. His sons took over and pretty much gutted the quality control. When Ed Schield still ran it, they made good stuff. I think Ed is still alive but not active in the day to day operations. Give Loewen a call. I would use them on my projects, but they are made in Canada and if I need parts this time of year I'm pretty much out of luck until they thaw out. I they had planned on building a plant/warehouse in South Carolina before the recession hit just to address the issue of weather delays and service, but I don't know if that ever happened.

The window order came in on monday less than four weeks from ordering altho 8 windows are on back order not sure which ones. I am assured by next Wed. latest. We are having the dealer store them for a couple weeks until roofing is finished we have been having major rain delays. From what I could see of the windows in the warehouse they are beautiful. I am regreting the unfinished interior as I will have to prime and paint. I will post pictures if I can figure out how to do it. This is after I track down the dupont flex flash and make sure the installers know how to use it. We have used Zip-Panels for exterior sheathing and are wondering if we should have used tyvek instead. All of this is so installation intensive and since I am at the mercy of the installers... Thank you to all who have posted to help my decision.

millworkman,i do appreciate your input, and you aren't the only person I "heard" from about WS not being a good product. i did not mean to be snarky. trust me, i'm frustrated with myself for wanting blue. i wish i had never seen the house in birmingham that made want blue. my husband is baffled. he says of all things that a woman can go over budget on, windows is not usually one of them! i thought maybe the "new" WS product was better, so i thought i'd ask. i was hopefu land wanting to believe in them. guess the "new" product is too new to for anyone to say for certain if it is truly better. i shouldn't be their guinea pig. fenestration, the kolbe's came in 6000 over our allowance for Jeldwen's, but i think i'll have to go over budget and use either Kolbe in blue or go with the Marvin integrity wood and ultrex window in gray or cashmere. i'm getting a quote on those today on the ultrex clad today. the all ultrex window doesn't have grilles on the outside of the glass, so I don't want those for sure. a friend of mine told me about some vinyl windows made in hendersonville, tennessee that come in blue or any custom color that we could use on the sides and back with kolbe or marvins blue aluminum clads on the front. but i think i'd be a guinea pig with these too. http://www.mgmindustries.com/painted-vinyl.htm http://www.mgmindustries.com/Paint_colors.html

Don't necessarily want to get into technical detail "debate" but Loewen claims to use Coastal Douglas Fir. The April 2010 Forest Service labs Woodhandbook (http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fpl_gtr190.pdf) does NOT test vertical grain DF as a category; Loewen website simply cites the handbook findings and seems to be in ballpark of accurate in claiming that their DF has better performance characteristics to Ponderosa Pine IF I am understanding things correctly. While I am interested in performance numbers and especially glazing performance, I am equally interested in forum "expert" opinions on functionality, customer experience, warranty service, etc. Thanks for any other input. And yes I will seek out looking at more things live, but while that is what I see and touch, it is what is under the hood that probably will have greatest influence on long term satisfaction. Added via edit, and in case like me you need a resource that describes in plain English what some of the measurements mean and in what circumstances they might be important you might find this page valuable the table on that page(http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Design/Nature_of_Wood/3_Wood_Strength/3_Wood_Strength.htm) also supports claim that DF is stronger than PP.