A neighbor had my Extractigator all winter. Time to pull trees was coming so I bought a PullerBear Pro XL321. I remember reading a long review (no longer available) where the writer said the two products complement each other but if you can buy only one, get the Extractigator, which I did four years ago. Now I have both. Biggest plus for the PullerBear is grabbing the tree closer to the ground. I have pulled up a number of trees that my Extractigator snapped off in previous years and would have snapped again. Another plus is also a minus. XL321 has a long handle. Gives me more leverage for bigger trees. Unfortunately, the main thing I want the PullerBear for is to pull trees the Extractigator would probably snap. I don’t need a really long handle for that. And yesterday, that long handle was a big problem in a tight spot. Was no way to I pull the handle because of a low branch in my way. Extractigator to the rescue until the tree snapped. Now for PullerBear downsides. PullerBear sorta makes fun of the Extractigator’s Bigfoot option. Why spend $20 for a Bigfoot when you can just make one for free with a scrap piece of wood and attach it to your PullerBear? Well, my PullerBear was not doing much because it was just sinking in the mud so I needed a bigger base. Found out I did not have the necessary scrap piece of wood laying around. Went to Lowes and Home Depot to find a scrap piece of wood. Scrap piece of wood lasted for less than two days. I’d much rather spend $20 on a piece of metal that lasts. While pulling trees, the PullerBear quit working. It was basically just scraping off bark. Happened over and over. Finally figured out that mud was inside the jaws but not visible because it was thinner than the tooth depth. Not a huge deal but not a problem I’ve ever had with my Extractigator. In the review that said the two tools complemented each other, the reviewer said the Extractigator was faster to use. He was RIGHT. Getting the PullerBear jaws on the tree can be a pain. You pull up on the handle to get it in the right position and the jaws shut so you put the whole thing down again and kick the tool into the right position. Or you lean over a lot and move it with your other hand. Either way, it is time consuming. The PullerBear requires a more downward angle on the handle when getting the tool on the tree. PullerBear touts this as a good thing because you get more handle travel when pulling. I found it to be a detriment because there were trees I could not use the PullerBear on because other trees were too close for the handle. Wish I had bought the PullerBear Cub XL. The main reason I wanted the PullerBear was pulling small trees the Extractigator would snap. The Cub XL would do that and have a handle 17” shorter than the Pro XL321. Plus, it was $45 cheaper. Now back to Home Depot for more scrap wood. :(

Bob-- the window isn't perfectly plumb vertically speaking: If I measure the width a few inches from the top, it's one figure; if I measure it closer to the bottom, it's off by a small amount, a fraction (can't recall exactly, it's been awhile since I measured it), so I would see slightly more light peeking through the sides at the bottom third. I realized the problem when I went to install a roller shade. I had measured for it about a third up from the bottom, and when I went to install it, it was too tight to fit at the top. Went to Next Day Blinds today--the $400 price for 2 windows was kind of jarring, so I'll do a few more price checks elsewhere and online (tho as I've said, that self-install can only get me in trouble--just not good at that stuff!).

We have a patio door w/cordless, cellular shades (Graber brand). The look is similar to a French door but the panel on the left side is stationary. Consequently, the door part (on the right) opens toward the stationary panel on the left. The problem w/the cordless cell shades is that they stuck out too far from the stationary panel and from the door. This meant they would hit each other whenever the door was opened too far (it couldn't open all the way due to the shades). This happened a lot, unfortunately, because it was the door to the backyard and we go outside frequently. We've had the shades about four years; in the last six months or so, one of the cords snapped on the shade on the door so the blind would no longer stay up. We opened and closed these shade a lot b/c I liked them open but DH wanted privacy. Another thing about these shades is that they clanked against the door whenever it was opened or closed. I found that very annoying. I'm looking to replace these shades with panels on flush mount rods. Incidentally, we have a window with a corded cellular shade purchased at the same time and it's working great.

I'd do inside mount. If I could, I would make the center window into 3 separate but abutting shades. I would have them capable of dropping to the floor, even if that meant that when you lowered the shades, you had to pull them out a bit to clear the lower window frame. Of course this doesn't mean you have to lower them that far, but you should have the capability. The wider the shades are, the more expensive and the heavier to lift, plus it puts more strains on the strings and makes them more likely to break. So going narrower has its benefits.