Window treatments

Wow. It had never occured to me how expensive window treatments can be! Not to mention the many types and options to choose from. My advice: do your homework by reading up on the subject. It'll help in narrowing down your choices so when you are ready to solicit quotes from different contractors, you will not be overwhelmed. This is what I did, but it still took me about 2 1/2 hours with the first contractor because I had to choose colors, style, product type, and other options. I thought I knew what I wanted and needed, but the salesperson had a lot of knowledge and recommendations that I was not or did not even know about. However, after I was through with the first contractor, I was armed with a solid knowledge of exactly what I wanted so the next two appointments with the other contractors were a short 45 minutes to an hour (depending on how much talking the sales person was doing and how much I allowed him to continue talking).

If you want to go the more cost-effective route, go to your nearest home center hardware store and do it yourself. I chose to leave the window treatments to the professionals. Neither my husband nor I have the time and patience to install blinds/shades throughout the whole house. We'd rather spend weekends enjoying family time rather than installations. Plus, we're helping the small business owners to stay in business by paying for their services....that's our excuse anyway.

So, what's the price tag? Well, the treatments I really wanted would have cost me a whopping $12K! So I had to scale down and opt for more affordable shades that serve the purpose and functionality of the rooms. The final cost is about $7600. Not the cheapest of the quotes I received. It all boiled down to the fact that the owner of the company I am doing business with actually came out and worked the quote for me. He was very personable and accommodating. He came off as a straight shooter kind of guy. I like straight shooters.

Now all I have to do is find a paint contractor to do the house before the installation of the window shades. And the adventure continues....