In which I finally say goodbye to the Redi-Shades

When we moved here almost 4 years ago, one of the first things we I did was to tear apart this living room.  This included the drapes.  For about a year, we lived without window coverings of any kind, but we finally decided we needed some privacy from the neighbors.  Enter the Redi-Shade.  It's a piece of "pleated" paper with double-sided tape at the top and little clothespins at the bottom.  You simply cut them to the width of your window and, voila!  Instant privacy.  They really don't look all that terrible either.  Definitely not the classiest, but nobody walked in the door and said, "Oh my God!  You have paper shades!  How tacky!"  And since nobody did this, I honestly wonder if anyone ever noticed...

But I noticed.  My friend Kendra has a little bungalow that came with these awesome blinds that you could open from the top or the bottom.  I always loved them, but couldn't find any in the stores that would fit our windows without custom ordering.  I was willing to pay for them eventually, but there always seemed to be other priorities.

But one day, while browsing JCPenny.com after looking at someone else's top-down/bottom-up shades that they had bought there, I finally found my shades.  I waited for them to go on sale, then got them for $17 each! 

They finally came in the mail yesterday, and I installed them this morning.  That part was a serious pain in the ass.  The screws that came with the mounting hardware were cheap as heck, and stripped even though I was just using a manual screwdriver.  I finally just used the short screws instead of the long ones, since I don't think anyone's going to be hanging from the shades.  At least I certainly hope not...  Other than that, they were sretty simple and straightforward to install.  One of the things I like is that the hardware is invisible once the shade is mounted.  They don't have that cheap-looking little plastic box on either side like most non-custom blinds.

Then I realized how God-awfully dirty the windows were.  So I washed the 4 living room windows, including the triple track storms.  Most times I hate our replacement windows, but being able to tilt them out for cleaning is a HUGE bonus in my book. 

Once the windows were nice and clean, I thought it was sad how much the futon blocked the view of the beautiful triple window at the front of the house.  So I rearranged the living room.  Thankfully the furniture is all on little felt pads, so I could just slide it around the floor.

Since I had to move the area rug, now I was really noticing how dull the floor looked near the dining room doorway.  So I touched up the area with a very light coat of shellac to make it shine again.  Can't do that with polyurethane!

Then I stopped to admire my work and saw that it was good.

Now if we could just get some pictures hung on the walls...