Horrors on the Residential Side

How bad is the residential world right now? Its funny in January, I was at the Builders Show and everyone was playing off this fake confidence that things are fine and so on. Now 11 months later, the truth is that it’s an absolute mess. MI Window announced its closing its Georgia facility hot off the news that PGT is “restructuring” its work force. And more dominos will fall. Heck why do you think Pella was so happy to get EFCO, because their core business was going to be affected, and as of now, that is surely the case. I guess we all have to hold on and roll with this, but judging from the statistics that keep coming out, this is not going to be a short run. Worst part? If cycles hold true, commercial always follows residential in the cycle, so will it be a matter of time before that happens?

Elsewhere….

-- Starting Monday is the NFRC meetings and I will be there. Should be interesting, as the heat is coming from every direction on the CMA program and its trappings. Jim Benney by the way has an article coming out in one of the trades where once again he (or whomever writes their happy fluffy stuff) talks about the need for NFRC. This time they focus on “Positioning your business for the future” because you’ll need NFRC because of all of the energy related pushes. So that may be the new approach, instead of taking the past inconsistent comments like “congress mandated it” or “it’s in the codes,” now, at least in this article, NFRC is appealing to the business sense. What they fail to mention is they want to keep their monopoly and have yet to show they want to produce a program that will work and be beneficial for all stakeholders. And folks I can not stress how hard your trade organizations IGMA, GANA, AEC and AAMA are working to protect your interests here. Anyway, I really believe now that the NFRC has to be realizing that this CMA issue could drag them into a place that they really don’t want to go… but if they do, I am excited for the ride….

-- Last week I propped the Guardian website and I know several people went right from here to there. Well this week I have to engage in some semi self promotion. And believe me I never do this; you can look through two years of posts for proof, but for this I have to because quite frankly I am proud of the effort and outcome. Earlier this week, the new Arch Deco Glass website launched. (Click Here). It’s really a spectacular site and many people led by Scott Cook and the designers at JAMAR Park and Fargo Design did a super job.

-- Our friends at Sage got plenty of good press this week… I am happy for them, good people and a great product- truly one that makes sense in an energy conscience world.

-- By the way is it just me or is every architect trying to draw glass bigger and bigger and bigger… what an amazing and scary trend… I love the look, but all of the other angles about it (handling, distortion etc) make it less appetizing. If anything it does force the fabricator to be better.

-- I think I should stop picking Football games…. Especially since I am in true “Mush” mode losing 2 of my last 3… but we’ll get back on the winning track this week with the Vikings +7 at home… and a bonus pick, in the “Game of the Century” I’m taking New England to win and cover… just too good of a team.

-- Last, is it Thanksgiving yet? That is one holiday that can not get here soon enough in certain regions… I wrote about the miserable duo of months we are in a few weeks ago and even one customer who reads this blog, fell right into the trap- he was being pressured by his GC which in turn forced him to pressure us… he even noted to me that it was comical that right after I mentioned these happenings he was involved… well thankfully all I think turned out well.. thanks for reading Jeff and making my blog predictions happen….

Video of the week is a cheerleader making the dire mistake of trying to fix a sign before a team full of players run through it…. Brutal…