On February 24th, I had the pleasure of presenting, alongside Brad Begin of Serious Materials and David Neiger of Populus, to the Santa Fe New Mexico Home Builders Association. We shared information and had a lively discussion regarding high performance windows and energy performance-based building codes. A copy of the presentation is inculded with this [...]

On December 11, 2008, the assets of Hurd Windows and Doors were purchased by Longroad Asset Management . This emergence from bankruptcy represents a positive step forward for the employees of Hurd and its distributors such as SolarGlass. Going forward, I believe Hurd will be able to accelerate investments in product quality and innovation. Unfortunately, [...]

As promised, I have an update on Hurd’s Chapter 11 filing. In last week’s post, I stated that I was seeking assurances from Hurd regarding their ability to continue to build and deliver quality products, stand behind their warranties, and invest in announced and exciting innovations. Hurd’s response can be found here 9-19-08-hurd-update-buildersarchitectshomeowners. Based on [...]

Monday morning, September 15, 2008, Hurd Windows and Doors filed a voluntary petition for a Chapter 11 reorganization under the bankruptcy codes. One of a number of public stories regarding this turn of events can be found here. As one of Hurd’s top customers, I had the good fortune to be in Medford Wisconsin for [...]

With the new building codes in the city and county of Boulder, homeowners and building professionals are coming into our showrooms with many questions regarding windows and doors for their remodel or new construction projects. The questions generally ask “which window or glass do I need to use to achieve the HERS (Home Energy Rating [...]

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I think today’s joint Alpen SolarGlass Boulder Green Build Guild presentation was well received. The audience was smaller than I expected but it was good to begin speaking on a topic that we all need to learn more about. It was also fun to be paired with the leadership of Alpen Energy Group. The most [...]

On the eve of a very important presentation to a Boulder Green Build Guild (BGBG) brown bag audience, I am happy that I am co-presenting with Alpen Energy Group. While it is true that Alpen and SolarGlass could be viewed as competitors and will at times compete for business, on a larger and more important [...]

Today, we lost an important job because the customer found our price too high. I hated the loss but penned a response to the customer to “speak my mind.” I stated that I thought about this on the drive home and while walking the dog. I asked myself should I have taken our margin below [...]

I thought I would share the contents of an email I received from my son who is back east attending a small liberal arts college. Dear Dad, Your blog reads like a Manifesto for the Eternally Corporate. It is a lot fun to read though and I hope your customers are able to gain insight [...]