Happy New Year! To quote a popular song, “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”, so before we officially look ahead to 2011, we look back on some of our favorite moments from 2010.

A Blog is Born: It’s been a year since we launched the Clopay blog. At the time some folks thought, why a blog on garage doors? As you have seen over the last 12 months, it’s about more than just garage doors – it allow us to take you behind the scenes of some of the most exciting showcase home projects from Jay Leno’s personal primetime “Garage Mahal” makeover to the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” season finale, as well as offer tips, advice and inspiration on things that affect your home’s value, curb appeal, sustainability and energy efficiency. 

Look for expanded content this year as we add guest bloggers and a whole new topic category: entry doors.

Introducing Clopay Entry Doors: You read that right – Clopay now offers entry doors to complement our most popular garage door styles, giving you the ability to coordinate the appearance of the two most important entrances to your home: the front door and the garage.entry-door

Energy Tax Credit for Garage Doors: The addition of garage doors to the Energy Tax Credit stimulus legislation gave homeowners a new opportunity to save on energy efficient upgrades to their home by investing in an insulated garage door. It expired December 31, 2010, but the garage door industry trade association continues to lobby to have it reinstated. Those who took advantage of the potential $1,500 in savings will enjoy comfort and cost-cutting on their utility bills for years to come.green-energy

Clopay Avante Collection: Eco-Friendly Garage Doors Fit for a “Smart Home”: Whether you’re a green building enthusiast or just looking for ways to incorporate eco-friendly living into your daily home life, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit was a must-see in 2010. The fully-functioning modular and sustainable “green” home—built right in the Museum’s backyard—highlighted the latest innovations in reusable resources; smart energy consumption; and healthy-living environments.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/08/26/Clopay-Midwest-Living.aspx

Late Night Headliner – Clopay Doors: “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is known for being undeniably passionate about two things: comedy and cars. So we were thrilled when the king of late night talk selected Clopay Reserve Collection custom wood carriage house garage doors to help renovate his personal yet unruly six-car, three room space into unbelievable “his” and “hers” garages for the DIY Network Garage Mahal series season opener in April. Check out video vignettes at www.jaylenosgarage.com.

Extreme Home Makeover and Clopay Open up a Whole New Space for a Deserving Family: We’ve blogged previously about the growing trend of utilizing glass garage doors to seamlessly merge indoor and outdoor living spaces. That application is precisely what attracted ABC “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” designers to Clopay’s Avante® Collection garage doors for the season finale makeover for a family struggling with their son’s diagnosis of Spina bifida and the father’s battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. One door was installed as a traditional garage door while the other two were incorporated into the architectural design as alternative patio doors to open up the family’s great room and also a private therapy space for their son.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/05/17/Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition.aspx

Clopay® Expands its Reach on National Radio with “At Home with Gary Sullivan”:
As the exclusive sponsor in the entry and garage door categories, we’re thrilled to be part of America’s most listened to call-in home improvement radio program, which airs weekends on 150 stations and XM Satellite Radio. http://www.garysullivanonline.com/main.html

Media and TV Converge on “Blog Cabin”: It’s a sign of the social media times – a home remodeling project executed based on the online will of the people. That’s the concept behind DIY Network’s “Blog Cabin.” During 2010, viewers cast their votes at diynetwork.com for products, elements and building features they wanted incorporated into a vacation dream cabin in upstate New York. The entire process was captured and aired in a five-part television special. Clopay presented two product options for the home, Reserve Collection and Coachman Collection carriage house doors. Wood garage doors won out with over 70,000 votes in 5 days.http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2010/09/01/DIY-Blog-Cabin-Garage-Doors.aspx

Buying a New Garage Door Goes Social: Clopay’s new Door Imagination System Facebook app lets you try on a new garage door and then have your network of friends help decide on the best look for your home.http://www.facebook.com/ClopayGarageDoors?v=app_142808389089759&ref=ts

Clopay Commercial Launches Rolling Steel Product Line: In addition to commercial overhead sectional doors, Clopay now offers a complete line of rolling service doors, insulated and un-insulated fire doors, counter shutters, fire and smoke rated counter shutters, rolling grilles and side folding grilles and closures. Commercial-Door-Products

Garage Door and Entry Door Replacement Projects Deliver the Biggest “Bang for the Buck” at Resale: The latest findings in the annual Cost vs. Value Report issued by Remodeling magazine show that garage door and entry door replacement projects not only deliver instant gratification in terms of a appeal, the projects yield the biggest return-on-investment at resale. In fact, midrange entry door and garage door replacement top the list of home improvements, netting the No. 1 and number 2 spots respectively, in the national average. Visithttp://www.remodeling.hw.net/2010/costvsvalue/national.aspx

2010 Hampton’s Designer Showcase Home: Speaking of curb appeal: HGTV’s “Curb Appeal: The Block,” series’ carpenter Chip Wade took time out to tour the Hamptons Designer Showcase home and explain why Clopay Reserve Collection Limited Edition carriage house garage doors were the perfect choice to complement to the home’s Shingle-style details, cross gabled roof and East Coast spirit. Watch the video athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoEJtVEgIU&feature=player_embedded
or /reserve

Dealers Vote Clopay Residential Products #1 – For the second year in a row, garage door dealers have named Clopay residential garage doors the best in the industry in Professional Door Dealer magazine’s annual dealer’s choice poll. We thank you and look forward to continuing to serve you in 2011.