I bought some white, faux-wood blinds for the front half of my house (the other half still has temporary shades, but 26 windows is $$$$!) from selectblinds.com. They have only been up less than a year, but so far I am happy with them. They look nice from the inside and outside, they were easy to install, and they raise and lower smoothly. I was concerned about the raising and lowering b/c I have some 72" double windows that I thought surely would be a fight with that kind of width, but they have performed just fine.
They also send e-mails frequently with specials, so if you are not getting yours on sale, hold off for a bit and watch the prices and specials. I initially went with them b/c I was looking for the best price, and ended up with decent quality too.