Does size really matter?

It does when it comes to windows!

Greetings from my backyard! It is Labor Day and man have I labored! Our culture highly values home ownership as one of the key goals of the American Dream. No one ever prepares you for the crappiness that comes along with this dream such as the To Do list that only gets longer and never gets shorter...now try handling that list as a single person. Very exhausting! So when a long weekend rolls around is this girl thinking BBQs and picnics? Nope, she's thinking time to cross some things off that list. What can I say, I have no life outside of this house and work.

Among painting the kitchen, master bath, and my office, my to do list includes things like digging up the front yard so I can have grass instead of weeds, killing the crab grass in the back yard and re-seeding before the moss takes over, un-packing my office from my furniture shopping spree at Ikea, and the usual laundry, bathroom cleaning (I have 3!), vacuuming, mopping, dishes...oh yeah, can't forget cooking/making meals! A girl's work is never done. So, with that said, I had a few goals this weekend. I failed at every single one except for one sanity saving grace!

The BIG thing I wanted to do, besides relax and try to grill on my own, was to hang some blinds in the master bathroom. For those that know me, I am not much a fan of the typical mass produced blind. They lack character and texture and tend to bring the decor of a room down (Aluminum mini blinds, ick! Vinyl verticals, double ick!) . Not good right? Up until now, I have refused to put any up.

So what changed my mind you might be thinking. The bathrooms! If any room requires privacy, it's the bathroom. My powerder room on the first floor permitted absolutely none at night and little during the day. My master bath got horrible lighting during the day, and not enough privacy at night. I shouldn't be afraid to walk around my own home naked! Not that I do, but it's the principal of the thing gosh darn it! Just for the record, Shawn and I went swinging in the tot lot behind my house one night and I could see STRAIGHT THROUGH my first floor. Really, straight through the back door and out the front door to my driveway. Needless to say, my neighbors across the common area can see straight through my house as well!

The search for blinds ensued. No mini's here! No natural types like bamboo and stuff either, which is what I already had in the master (I had a nice grass cloth venitian style blind. I loved it, high points for character, charm, and texture and the spa quality I hope to envoke...but these types of materials are meant to filter light only. Don't expect any privacy as you can see right through them at night.) No custom made ones, either! I think my powder room, which is a relatively tiny (yet tall) window would have cost me about $400 for custom fitted faux wood blinds. I think $30 at Home Depot is a lot more affordable, don't you?

As I mentioned, the blinds I chose came from Hope Depot. Two inch faux wood slatted blinds that were embossed to look like a wood grain on the slats as well as the valance. I liked that they were a decent illusion of the real thing rather than looking absolutely fake, which is typical. Why faux you ask? Mass produced, real wood blinds are available at afordabale prices, but they tend to be flimsly, light weight blinds that will break in a heartbeat. Oh, and remember I was looking for something for my bathroom(s). Bathrooms are very humid from all those hot showers and bubble baths (ooooh, bubble bath...). Real wood would warp in these conditions. Faux wood maintains its shape.

So I had the type I wanted, now to find the right size! My windows are the most atypical things around and not even consistent within my own home. Most exasperating, let me tell you! Thank goodness Home Depot (and Lowes) have a couple of brands that can be cut to size so you are not paying an arm and a leg for custom blinds for those akward sizes like mine. (For example, my powder room was 32 and 7/8 inces wide..really, builder, couldn't you have just made it 33"????)

So for those that were watching my Facebookpostings, you all know I made a little (ahem) boo boo. I measured the width of my windows...but I had no idea blinds also came in different lengths as well! Home Depot seemed to have two lengths available for the blinds I wanted: 64" and 72". Um...uh oh...which ones? Eep! Well 64" for the master bath, that window was definitely a squat one, but the powder room? I have 9' ceilings on that floor, but the window wasn't floor to ceiling. The blind cutter had a ruler on it and it didn't look like the powder room could be longer the 64"...have I mentioned that I am horrible at eyeballing ANY type of dimension?

Oh was I wrong and will never forget to measure window length again! You'd think I would have learned my lesson from the highwater curtain fiascos from when I first moved in to this place. Nope! Not only were the blinds for the powder room a bear (think a different B word for a more realistic description) to put up due to the narrowness of the space (both room wise for the lader, and space wise for the drill and screwdrivers to install the brackets)...the blinds are also 11" too short for the window. Yes my friends, 11"...even the long ones would have been highwaters at 3" too short. As you can imagine, I wanted to pull my hair out (As a side note, I was also trying to grill a lovely organic sirloin steak for dinner as I was installing my blinds, but the damn grill just would not get hot enough to cook anything and I ended up with a crappy dinner!).

My sanity's saving grace was the blinds for the masterbath. Perfect fit and easy install (Also revealed my numerous mistakes from my first attempt at hanging anything AND using power tools from when I installed the woven shade two years ago. I definitely will need to fill those holes in when I sell this place in a few years). They also work in the room. Clean color, clean lines...brings in all the day light and blocks peeping tom's at night. I am very happy with the blinds for my bathroom...unlike the powder room which depresses me everytime I pass it...which is everytime I come downstairs!

Now, it has been suggested I should sell that set on Craig's List since cut blinds are NOT returnable. Another option is for me is to move them to another window where they that might fit. The first floor window is an inch too long (just one freaking inch! ARGH!), but I can move them to the kitchen for the sink window OR hang them in my bedroom where I have three windows with the relative same width and which clock in at 61" tall...I think...