One Month Checkup

We’ve now been living in our home for four weeks. And let me tell you, it’s awesome. I think I tell DJ every day how much I love this house. I love how bright and sunny the kitchen is in the morning. I love the porch. I love parking in the garage. I love the wood floors in the downstairs. I love the Master Bedroom and Bath. I love the washer and dryer too!

There is still a list of things to get done. We handed over the “punch list” to the contractor last week. Things like hanging the pendant light above the sink, putting the downstairs lights on dimmers, getting DJ a garage door opener, and my critical item, gutters. Water from the roof drips directly onto the front steps, making it a slightly elevated ice skating rink. Luckily it faces south, so it melts pretty quickly.

A major item that we need to address soon is window coverings. We’ve procrastinated on them long enough; mostly because we can’t agree on what we want. DJ wants the two inch white blinds in every window.

I… well, I want a window covering which multi-tasks. I want it to insulate; especially in the 70.5 inch wide by 64.5 inch tall master bedroom window, which faces north. But I also want to be able to see in and out of them. And I want them to have texture. For the master bedroom and the downstairs area, I want to have the to-down/ bottom-up feature, to offer privacy while still seeing out. The same goes for the guest bathroom, and maybe bedrooms too. I’m leaning towards a cellulose shade, the double cells of which offer insulation, and when done as an inside mount they trap cold air between the window pane and the shade. The still let through a lot of light, which we’d mitigate in the master bedroom with outside mount curtains.

Because dudes, let me tell you, those double paned vinyl windows are not keeping the heat in!

We went into Home Depot a week or so ago, and browsed their books, which totally helped. We left feeling like we’d be able to come to some sort of conclusion. And I ‘m trying really hard not to dig my heels in. Stubbornness does not always win.

This whole conversation warranted a pretty sophisticated spreadsheet. When we started dating I often poked fun at DJ’s spreadsheet obsession. I mean, the man spreadsheeted everything, from our vacations to what to buy at the grocery store. Nearly two years later, I’m a convert. I mean, how else could I organize all of this information for us to make a good decision? See:

How else would I be able to tell you that a full set of cellulose blinds for the nine same sized windows we have in the living room, stairs, guest bedroom, guest bathroom and office would cost us $1,552.95? And adding the master bedroom window and the kitchen doors brings the total up to $2,091.00. Did I mention we just bought a house, have little in savings, and need to also save for a wedding? Sure. Gulp.

But, by manipulating the spreadsheet I can tell you that if we bought cellular shades for only the rooms we use right now (master bedroom big window, living room and stairs, and guest bathroom) we can knock it down to $1,106.70. Thank god Montana has no sales tax.

Now who is crazy enough to go into Home Depot on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to try to order blinds?

I mentioned we’ve procrastinated on this because we don’t immediately agree. This doesn’t happen to us very often. Usually my opinion is exactly what DJ thinks, and vice versa. So I guess in the name of not arguing we’ve just put off the inevitable. Interesting strategy, right?

Does anyone have the cellulose blinds? Or do you like the white two inch wood ones? Are they played out—so 2001?