nepool, I love the picture in your first post. That door is beautiful and it looks so nice with the wood floor and the whole room. Are cased windows something a lot of people do? We have never had cased windows. Of course we have a window sill but not cased. Maybe it's a regional thing. Since you have stained trim maybe you can answer a questions for me. I am concerned that if I do all stained that it will limit paint choices in the future. My house has all white except the kitchen cabinets. I remember when we painted the kitchen having to find a color that went with the cabinet color (some stains have more red or yellow in them). My sister has stained trim and doors (in her words, ugly stained trim) and when she painted a room and didn't think about the trim and the dark blue doesn't look like she had expected next to the dark trim. I have a dark blue room with white trim and the contrast is striking. We don't even have a floor plan yet and these details are driving me crazy.

We bought ours at Home Depot, but had to pay to install them as it wasn't as easy as the brochure made it look. Of course, once installed, it took about 10 min for our cats to figure out they could escape through the bottom, so we pretty much never get to use them unless we lock up the cats. :( As far as "snapping", we could fix the one side to be stationary and then just open the other side. We really like them when we can use them. I called the manufacturer, and they said they were never intended to be used as pet screen.

Timely thread! I just spent the last two months shopping for a replacement patio french door plus a regular door coming into my laundry/mud room entrance. Will share my experiences if it helps. I did not want interior blinds in my french door (which, even though it is on the back of the house, it is my main entrance). Why? I knew I would never close them! We don't need the privacy that much. I did choose interior grids - they may mot look quite as authentic, but they will sure be easier to clean plus no painting. I priced Lowe's "house brands" - Reliabilt and Benchmark (which I think is made by Thermatru), plus Pella and Anderson. I just could not see paying the price for Pella or Anderson. I ended up with ordering Thermatru which, from my research, is a middle of the road (slightly higher end than Reliabilt, but cheaper than Pella and Anderson. I started shopping/researching through a true building supply/door and window shop for Thermatru, but actually ordered from a local small, town building supply store. I am getting it cheaper than the Lowe's house brands. It is going to be around $800. We will install ourselves (not, our handy-man will with the assistance of DH). I am actually replacing an older, 20 year old Thermatru which was metal and metal typically does not hold up that long. It is rusting out at the bottom. On to the mud room. I am replacing a pine wood slab door, which has absolutely no insulating value, but I just wanted a plain-jane fiberglass kitchen type door with the window in the top. I went with a cheaper HD house brand, Masonite, and I did order the blinds in this door. It is not hung yet, but sure looks good. The sales staff in Home Depot and Lowes really vouch for the interior blinds. They all tell me they have very few "failures" and they can be replaced if necessary. When I questioned how well the interior blinds would hold up, one of the sales guys gave this example: "We have a display door set up in the store - every shopper that walks by has to "try them out" so they probably get opened and close approximately 25 times a day and we have not had a failure yet". Makes sense. Just my 2 cents - I highly recommend you look at Thermatru. Tuesday

Thank you for all the replies. I suspect some complaints about the leakage could be operator error, such as not getting a piece of ice stuck in the dispenser out. This happens occasionally no matter what kind of refrigerator you have. I have researched and studied different models for about 3 fulls days and appreciate all the recommendations. My husband decided to see if he could fix ours... I just knew for sure I would need a new one when I was observing this process...lol He pretty much gutted it, a lot has to be removed to access wiring connections, circuit boards etc.... there were so many parts strung out in my kitchen, on the floor and counter tops to the point there was not even enough counter space to put a sandwich together..... Process of elimination he said. he has all the meters to test wiring and circuit boards. Low and behold he found the problem!...and fixed it AND was successful at re-assembling everything. Were there any parts leftover?... one tiny little bitty screw off the back panel and the only reason it was leftover is because our little Chihuahua carried it to her bed. To tell you the truth I am so happy he was able to fix it. It is a GE Profile and this is the first problem we've had with it in 9 years. The freezer side has all pull out wire baskets which I love and I am happy with the configuration of the refrigerator side.