If you are this concerned about the minute details of your doors (and you should be; they are costly and you do not want to be disappointed upon installation or years down the road), I highly suggest that you should dump the idea of buying them from HD or Lowes. It is rare that a big-box retailer will have someone that REALLY knows what they are dealing with. And you're right... their subcontract installers are not of the caliber that you'll want... HD/Lowes sets a very low unit price for installs, and their subs will just want to get it in the hole and get out to have any chance of making money. Go to a window & door specialty store, or local millwork supply that deals in the various higher-end products that you want. They will give you good information, and most have in-house installers or offer expert contractor referrals. Pella has their own stores; Marvin, Andersen, Jeld-Wen have excellent dealer networks; contact the manufacturers directly to find out about dealers in your area. I would like to reiterate that this is not ALWAYS the case... some HD/Lowes have really excellent and knowledgeable folks... although most are generalists, and know just enough more than you about the product to make you feel like you're dealing with an expert. You may be pleasantly surprised to find, also, that the big box prices are not always the lowest! Good Luck! Here is a link that might be useful: AskMason

Over the past nine years I have purchased and paid for installation of 26 Pell Designer series windows and a patio door. I was replacing Rockwell windows which had rotted, warped, leaked and were clouded between the glass. The windows I purchased from Pella are aluminum clad outside and wood trim inside - all casements. I purchased the Pella rol-screens when available and mini blinds between the glass, also when available. But here are the significant problems. Yesterday I discovered the interior wood trim on the portion of the window that cranks out is peeling off. On a guest bedroom window that is used rarely I discovered the trim is completely off. That caused me to inspect the other windows and discovered 16 windows in total are peeling from 2 inch to 8 inches starting from the top and working down. Some of these windows have been in as briefly as 5 years, some up to 9 years. This is the final straw in a series of disappointments. The first disappointment was cosmetic - the realization that I could not get the mini blinds on all sizes. So the cohesive, clean, contemporary look I was striving for is unattainable. The second was quality - 22 of the windows have blinds. The blinds are poorly constructed - some of them do not drop all the way to the bottom of the window - this appears to be a matter of mismatched tolerances, a manufacturing problem. About half of them have the protective piece installed over the string mechanism falling off, a materials/adhesive problem. Some of them have warped blinds, blinds that have never been outside the glass are distorted. On these "older" blinds, the strings are a hassle - they blow between the window and its frame and they tangle, and washing the window around the hooks provided to wrap the string is cumbersome. Which is the third frustration - when Pella introduced their new design without strings, they left all the earlier customers without an opportunity to upgrade. And I repeatedly asked for an upgrade plan. Finally I reached the phase of replacement where we were installing tall narrow windows, and then I discovered Pella doesn't offer true casements. The benefit of casements is that you can wash both sides from the inside - but not with Pella. Pella provides you a casement window with a butt hinge which means you are (I am) dragging out the ladder and buckets to wash these windows from the outside - and yes, blinds are not an option for these windows either. Oh, and to lock them requires multiple mechanisms. After being surprised when the first set of windows arrived with butt hinges, I waited four more years for Pella to get with the program. Finally I replaced the remaining nine windows with Andersen windows. Should have done that in the first place - the Andersen windows have a great strong hinge, open for ease of washing, have a single mechanism to lock the tall windows (vs multiple on the Pella), have more glass for light and view than the comparable Pella windows, and were clad by Andersen to match my existing investment in Pella. No, I am not employed by Andersen - I am just tired of being ripped off by supposedly credible companies like Pella. Pella got over $50K of my money and I got a series of problems and disappointments.

I can't believe I finally figured out how to post pics!! Please, I need some help. These are older pics because we are getting ready to drywall soon and I need some advice. These windows are 22 feet high. The window on the lower right is actually an 8 foot height sliding french door. My contractor decided to put the left set of windows equal distant from the left wall and the Log post in the center (between the 2 sets of windows). I think it looks off-balanced. Seems the two sets should have been equal distant from the Log post in the center. I hope I'm making sense. Anyway, nothing I can do now. I wanted to keep the log, but now I'm thinking we should trim out this entire wall with wood and build out over the log so it won't look off center. Comments and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Anyone have trim pics of their wood window walls?

LOL. It was the professionals that primed over a door that was supposed to be stained. Anyway I am sure my GC has stained doors before but now that he had to replace the door once (and it wasn't cheap), he is afraid to even breath on the door now. He is basically looking for me to confirm that he should do X to the door, and that way if he does X, I can't turn around and say oh you ruined the door.