I got the Owens Corning system installed in the middle of August 2012. It looks like compacted insulation with a cloth backing glued to it. The exterior walls that were exposted to the outside (not underground) got 2 inch insultation and the other panels were 1 inch. the whole thing was done quickly by a local contractor. He did pretty good work but there are a few gaps in some of the plastic parts. He used regular drywall to do a closet. The price per square foot was about $78 which I have realized is way out of line. My wife was dieing from cancer upstairs while this was being done and the workers were very sensitive to my situation. The floor is plastic and is not easily accessed if one needs replaced. The salesman was really slick and I didn't realize I paid way too much until I started reading this blog. The admin side of this is very sleazy and they are not very upfront in helping you get a good deal. That is an understatement! If I had to do it again, I would hire a local contractor to put in a basement using similar product and about a 1/4 of the price. I like the product but I do not like the price, the sales method or the shoddy planning. These guys are going to be found out sooner or later and this has got to stop. Let the buyer beware!!

Hey, Jay, do you remember the old Robert Mitchum movie about the NC moonshiners? It was remade not many years ago, and I think Mitchum's son was in it the second go-round. Anyway, Thunder Road is part of the Moonshiner mentality, the beginning of the stock car generation, the present NASCAR elite from NC. I think it has a double meaning for the racing and for the moonshine running activities. I think you are on the right track with Bootleg. What are some other words they used for Moonshine? Shinney? White Lightning? So far though, I think Bootleg is the least pretentious. It also implies a do-it-yourself operation, so good in more ways than one. And, I was reading a book about the building of pocket neighborhoods, where they all named their homes, and realized that I don't HAVE to add "cottage" or whatever other word to the name I choose. And in this book, folks were naming their homes things like ROSECROFT, CHILI PEPPER (the house was painted red outside), etc. They said anything goes as long as it has meaning to YOU. So I thought, what is the most significant symbol of my life with my DH soon to be celebrating our FIFTH anniversary. And the album by Bette Midler called BETTE OF ROSES was important in my life since the day my son died. It was also the album that followed the trail of our reuniting after 50 years apart, and the song describes "When the White Bird flies, from your heart to mine,...." and for this lovely song, we had a porcelain white dove and rose atop our wedding cake instead of the traditional bride and groom. And then I was browsing through the Little and Lewis (Bainbridge Island WA artists and gardeners) website and saw they had a lovely white dove in flight for sale, and it would go so nicely in our landscape, and I have about decided.... Just call it one of these two: WHITE DOVE OR WHITE BIRD No "Cottage" after it at all, just WHITE DOVE.......or ......WHITE BIRD... Which do you think is better? I have several plaques and figurines with white doves, this has always appealed to me for various reasons. But for my life which is avian loving, it is more appropriate than SUN. The house is white stucco. I could very easily cut out from wood or cement board a dove in flight. Not a seagull, don't-cha-know, not a cockatoo, but not ruling out that I could have a great white heron or snowy egret somewhere in the garden too. Or a white owl? Well, so much for that today. No gardening for this gal with the temp supposed to be 99 today, even if it did rain about half an inch yesterday. I saw the baby rabbit out in the garden eating seed heads from the withered tall grass, not cutting it again until there is enough rain. This poor baby must have lost his mama, he looks so skinny. My DH says he has a friend with a HOUSE BUNNY, who is quite house trained and impeccably clean, has a litter box inside. I wish my doxie girl Dixie would be peaceful so this little rabbit could be her friend and all live happily ever after.

@Ronnie Hossain Pella was sued and settled the case for Pella ProLine casement, awning, or transom window which were manufactured between January 1, 1991, and December 31, 2009 (“Pella ProLine Casement Window”) As @millworkman said, most issues people having is improper installation, and for every complaint, we address when it comes to newly installed windows or doors or anything else for that matter 90% of the issues are related to improper installation or flashing applications, etc. Not sure what happened in your case since you didn't say what issues you experienced yes some company representatives do try to point the arrows at the installers but most of the time they're right because not many follow the manufacturer's guidelines and not only when it comes to windows I see that with backer board installations, with composite decking installations, etc. That being said, I'm not defending Pella window manufacturer, I never used Pella and never suggested using them, just telling you based on my general experience... If you take the best product out there and you do not follow the manufacturer's minimum installation requirements there will be issues. Good luck

We haven't banked at a commercial bank since the 80's and doubt I ever will again. Granted they aren't perfect, but the people are nice, we bank entirely for free and when it came down to us really needing their help, they were there for us. Last October our bank account was wiped out by a hacker and they had the paperwork done and our funds returned to the account within 24 hours. I can guarantee a commercial bank would have been a nightmare for us. Most people don't know this but you don't have to pass banking at a CU because of limited branches. CU's don't need a gazillion branches because most of them belong to the Credit Union CO-OP and share services. Granted there are some things you can't do when you go to a branch that isn't for your specific CU, but normal stuff like deposits and withdraws, transfers and so on are a non issue. And you don't get charged to use any of the co-op member ATM's either. You can tell if a CU is part of the CO-OP if it has this insignia:There are also Credit Union service centers that centrally service all of the credit unions in the co-op. If you're at all interested, here is a site that you might find helpful: http://co-opfs.org/solutions/locations/co-op-network/.