Blinds

After tons of research, four bids from local blind people, and comparison shopping at least two online companies (and several weeks of no blinds in the windows), we finally made a decision and ordered some blinds! 

We decided on Select Blinds because of their quality and their cost. They were the cheapest by far and when I saw their connection with Extreme Home Makeover, I was all but sold. (Haha. Just kidding.) We saved about $500 by installing them ourselves. We measured and remeasured each of our 16 windows and then placed our order. 

Less than two weeks later, these beauties showed up on our front steps. 

They were pretty heavy, and it took me several trips outside to drag them inside. Lydia wanted to come with me, which was problematic because she doesn't understand the concept of "falling down stairs if you aren't careful". I brought her out and set her on the driveway, but she tried to climb the steps. I set her inside and she tried to climb out the door. Finally I trapped her in the living room. She was NOT happy. I had to laugh because she could have easily crawled around the coffee table and made it to the door in a matter of seconds. But she was so upset that she couldn't make that connection. She tried to climb over the box, got down on her knees and tried to crawl around the box (into the wall), then stood back up and cried until I finished bringing the boxes in.

Haha. I know it's probably bad to laugh. And in the moment, I really was hurring as fast as possible because I hated to see her cry. But now I look at these pictures and think they are so funny. It's interesting because Lydia is learning new things every day, but this is a good example of the fact that she still doesn't understand some basic things (like being able to crawl around the coffee table). 

When David got home, we pulled out one set of blinds to check them out. Yay for pretty blinds! 

The following Saturday, we started hanging. 

Yay! Our first window done. Lydia didn't love the sound of the drill, but between the two of us she did okay. We started with the smallest window in the someday-nursery to give ourselves practice.

 Armed with experience and a good understanding of the process of blind-hanging we moved downstairs and worked on the living room window. (Which is the only main floor window open to the street.) I was so excited to get some blinds up.

We busted out our awesome red ladder to help us in our blind-hanging efforts. This was the first time that it was actually used for something other than display/advertisement. We hung these two windows during the break between General Conference. We figured that was a good start. However, the following week, I decided that I was ready to have blinds up in all the rooms and so over the course of two days... I hung the rest of them by myself. I was so proud. I mostly worked during Lydia's naptime, but towards the end, she wasn't as afraid of the sound of the drill and she crawled around the room while I worked on hanging the blinds. At one point, I could feel her holding onto the small step ladder by my feet. (It's just a two-step ladder, but it was tall enough to reach the windows upstairs.) After I finished drilling the hole, I looked down and Lydia had figured out how to climb up on the bottom step and was holding onto my legs on the top step. I was impressed and a little concerned. I had to turn the stool/ladder around so that the steps were facing the wall to prevent her from climbing up them.

I was so proud of myself for hanging the rest of the blinds (and super grateful for my parents who gave me an awesome power-tool set for my graduation present). However, the following morning I could barely move! The muscles in my arms and back were so sore. Luckily, David watched Lydia while I mustered up the energy to get out of bed. After he got home from work he gave me a nice backrub while we watched one of our TV shows.

Moral of the story: We now have blinds and we are SO excited. It's amazing that such a simple thing can make such a big difference in the feel of the house. Things already look so much more finished and lived in. (Where before, the open windows made things look really... "we just barely moved in".) Next up is a curtain for the sliding glass door in the kitchen, hanging our temple picture in the living room, and buying an entertainment center for the family room. Yay!