January 24th, 2017

Something that always baffles me is dressing a window.  I know they all need a little "something" but I never know what.   I stand in the window treatment aisles at any store that has them and stare around myself in a daze.   It's not that I don't like any of the choices, it's that I like all of them.

"Oh those shutters kind of say Florida don't they? Ooooo look at the pretty white ones.  Those gauzy ones with the print are really cute. What would you think about a sheer?" Poor Tim has to listen to that everytime we go to the store.  And there are the options, drapes or curtains? Valance or café curtains? Sheer or no sheer?  Don't even get me started on fabric types.

And if you have tricky windows like this bay window, I'm completely stymied.  What sort of curtain do you put on a window like this?  Well neither of us could figure that out. So we ended up with a window blind instead.  One thing I was positive I did not want when it came to window blinds is the old venetian blinds.  We still have hanging in our bedroom the ones that came with the house.  I have chosen to forever more just leave them down and closed because each time I open them or raise them I end up instead fighting another mighty battle. One of these days I will lose the war and we will lie awake with moonlight in our eyes (to say nothing of streetlights) until they are replaced.

We ended up choosing this sort of window blind because even if it's closed, some soft light comes through.  So we once again have privacy, (after seven months....about time!) but on a lazy Sunday morning even with the blinds still closed, it won't feel tomb-like in the kitchen.  But one of the other neat-o things about these blinds is that they can be positioned anywhere in the window.  So for Tim it was a way cool gadget but for me, endless adjustment according to what we need or want without the duel to the death attitude of venetian blinds. 

So far both of us are having fun playing with them.

I'm thinking, maybe we can work out a code for the different positions.  It could like signal flags.  Maybe up high means, all is well and fully extended top to bottom means go away.   Right in the middle means, emergency, need ice cream.  I'm not sure what the above photo means.  Crazy as always??

Regardless, we have decided that we like these so much, we are putting them in the family room as well.  I think both the windows in both rooms will need some sort of curtain or drape on the ends to act as a frame. I don't want to the house to look to "office-y"  and a curtain, just a nice column would probably be enough to soften it a bit.  We discussed it and Tim has agreed.  So now we are back to standing in the aisles with me saying, "What do you think of that one?  Ooooo that's pretty?  Here is an idea?"

In Colorado, my friend Marsha, my voice of reason, my  idea lady, came with me.  Thank God, or those window would have been naked for ten years.  By coincidence, we lived in that house for ten years.  But that was Colorado, this is Florida. Although we tried, we could not force Marsha or her husband Paul  into our suitcases to bring with us.

I fear this decision making process will never end.  But at least we can now walk around in our underwear in our kitchen if we chose,  so that's progress, right?