How I Learned That I'm Not The Most Important Person In The Neighbourhood

After a very crazy long weekend, we finally reclaimed a bit of sanity on Monday and had a great day of going out for lunch, picking up my  mom from the airport, visiting my cousin and her kiddos, and installing our new blinds! 

I am so in love with them. For instance, right now I'm sitting on the couch with my back to the window...and I don't feel scared and exposed because everyone can see me but I'm turned away and can't see them. Philip has explained to me that people aren't going to be shocked and taken aback by the fact that where they could once see in, they can no longer. I still think it's shocking to them...6 months of seeing what we're watching on TV and what we're wearing that day robbed forever...has to be a shock to the system.

Here's how we did it:

Step 1: Choose Blinds

We went with cellular fabric blinds from Home Depot. This choice was made for reasons such as future kiddo safety (cordless option), aesthetics, and Home Depot gift card.

Step 2: Wait for Blinds to be Delivered

It took 2-3 weeks for our blinds to arrive, and then I sprained my ankle so we didn't get to them for another 2 weeks. 

Step 3: Open Packaging & Find Instructions

The instructions were hidden in a secret bottom compartment of the box...I'm not Nancy Drew Hampton Bay. 

Step 4: Get Out Your Measuring Tape

First you have to measure where each blind will sit and do some serious tracing. Then you measure 3" in to where the brackets will sit. Then you measure where the holes should be drilled.

Step 5: Drill Holes
This step was very anti-climactic, I feel like I was nervous about it for hours - imagining our PVC window frames cracking and windows instantly fogging up from broken seals...the drill just made a little hole and we were done them all in a matter of minutes. Not too exciting. (Note: Some PVC Window manufacturers will void your warranty so be sure to check into that if it's something that's important to you.)
Step 6: Screwdriver Time
Each screw has to be put in by hand which gets kind of tiring. Our biggest challenge was getting the screws to go in straight. I guess there isn't much for them to grab onto behind the plastic frame and so they kept going in crooked, which causes the brackets to look pretty wonky. We had to undo a couple of them and redo them which made for sore hands but was worth it in the end.
Step 7: Clip & Enjoy!
As soon as the brackets are all up, the blinds just click right 0n and you're in business!

Here are some pictures of the process:

Drilling the anti-climactic pilot holes.

One blind up, screwing in some more brackets.

The brackets finally successfully straight.

The blinds, letting light in at the top and
privacy being provided at the bottom.

Anyone else loving blinds these days? Getting excited about something that looks this boring? 

Sorry Neighbours

Our neighbours are about to lose a great view. We officially ordered living room blinds this week after hemming and hawing for quite a while. 

We were delayed primarily because of the cost. Blinds are really expensive. We started out with a quote from Home Depot that seemed really high so we decided to wait a little longer. Then for Christmas we got some Christmas money that we thought we'd really like to dedicate towards something specific like blinds. 

Our blind quest continued. We decided to get a quote from a local blind company that we thought might be cheaper, but they came in at almost double the price of Home Depot. The other thing that pushed us towards the big box store was that we had some gift cards for Home Depot from our credit card points which made it a substantially better deal to go with Home Depot.

If you aren't familiar with cellular blinds, they're fabric blinds that are made up of little "cells" - you can get single or double celled (we went with single as double is more expensive and better for heat savings which we aren't as worried about as we have a brand new hvac system and windows). Here's an idea of what they might look like:

At first I wasn't a huge cellular blinds person, but after seeing them more and more I've definitely become hooked. I especially like the top-down/bottom-up feature which I think will be especially handy in our living room.

The blinds we went with are cellular's, white in color, and we were able to upgrade to include the top down/bottom up feature, and they'll be cordless. I can't wait to see them! It's really hard to tell in the samples how see-through they'll be and what they'll look like in the window. We'll definitely post pictures!

We ordered the blinds and they should be here in a couple of weeks! Yay to no more fish bowl!