Blinded

Monday, September 17 was Rosh Hashanah, and both Douglas and I had the day off. We used some of the gift certificates that we received as wedding gifts to purchase woven blinds for our house. We bought the Cali Cordless Woven Shade at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It is no longer available, but here is another. (affiliate link) It is nice to have window treatments that match throughout the house. I like that they are natural and cordless, as well as easy to raise up and down. Below is the picture from their website (This is not my house!).

When we moved in, all of the windows had plastic roller shades and lace curtains in different colors. The only exception was the kitchen, which had these ivy-covered curtains.

All of the curtains, except for the ones in the kitchen, came down immediately. They are still in a box in the basement. We took the blinds down in the living and dining rooms, but we had to leave them in the bedrooms and bathroom for privacy. I bought the sheer curtains at Bed, Bath and Beyond with my grandmother shortly after moving in. They are hung on copper pipes that I bought at Home Depot.

The first step on Monday was to take down the curtains in the kitchen. While doing this, I noticed how filthy the inside of the window was. I cleaned the insides of all the windows with bleach water. They look much better, but as still not perfect. I really wish that we could afford new windows.

I also cleaned the window in the door in the kitchen. I am not sure if you can tell how dirty the window was in the first picture, but you can really tell that there is a difference in the two pictures! I am hoping to clean all of the screens and the windows inside and out next weekend.

Next, I put up the new blind on the door. Crème was very intrigued by the whole process. If she were not so cute, I would have strangled her. (There was a wardrobe change at one point.)

I did finally get it up.

Douglas came in to help after that. He drilled all the holes. Originally, I was installing the brackets and blinds and cleaning the windows. I was taking a lot more time than him, so he took over the installation of the brackets as well. He looks so hot in his tool belt!

We came across a few problems along the way. First of all, some of the blinds were coming off the frame. We had to re-glue them with Liquid Nails.

The drill bit broke. Luckily, we had a spare.

Some of the blinds were not hanging evenly. I spent too much time removing the blinds and trying to untie the tiny knots and re-tie them higher up before I realized that it was much easier to just tie a new knot higher than the original one while the blinds were hanging.

I decided to leave the plastic blind in the shower because it is more water proof. The window is in the shower itself.

Now we have new blinds in every other room. I am so pleased with the new look.

Of course, just days after we installed the blinds, I read this post on the blog Young House Love. They hung the blinds above the windows where the curtains are hung. Now I wish that I had done that. However, I feel that I might jeopardize my relationship if I tell Douglas that I want to take down all of the blinds and hang them higher. I am also too exhausted to do it right now myself. Therefore, the blinds will stay where they are for the time being. I still love the way they look much better than I liked the windows without them.

I love my new blinds.

Happy Homemaking!