So, the next fad (or trend) on my list to complain about is curtains - draperies - window treatments! Without exception, dressing the windows in our new house gave us the biggest headaches and led to the most stress and drama of anything we did in this remodeling process. We have lived in 7 different homes in our married life (soon to be 30 years - woo hoo!), and never before have we had such trouble finding window treatments that we wanted!
Issue #1: Our new house, which was built in the early '70s has replacement windows that were installed probably sometime in the last 10 years. They are very nice, and were a definite selling point for us. Old House, which was built about the same time as New House, has NOT had replacement windows installed. It still has the original aluminum windows. The old windows are set toward the outside of the window opening, allowing room within the window frame for mini-blinds to be hung within the opening. This is quite convenient because the mini-blinds don't interfere at all with any curtains. However, the new replacement windows have been set farther to the inside of the window opening, leaving no room for mini-blinds inside the window frame. This was something we didn't discover until after we'd purchased the house (not that it would have been a deal-killer anyway, but it was just a revelation to us because we didn't expect this difference).
Originally, my thinking was that I didn't want any mini-blinds in New House. We have them at Old House, and I wanted to try to do as many things as differently as possible, especially since the floor-plans are the same. However, once we got to working regularly at NH, we started to think that we were really going to need blinds both for privacy and for light control. The house faces south, and while the wide roof-overhang prevents much direct sunlight in the heat of the day, it is still very bright in the living room and both front bedrooms. We also have very close neighbors on the west side - also exposed to the front corner bedroom and the back master bedroom. Again - west facing windows = direct sunlight and heat. The first time I tried to work in my sewing room with the afternoon sun bearing in, I realized I had to have mini-blinds no matter how much I didn't want them.
Ok - now, no room inside the window frame for blinds means they have to be hung on the wall outside of the window opening, which means their thickness impacts the hanging of curtains. Most curtain mounting hardware does not extend far enough to clear mini-blinds and still leave plenty of room for free movement of curtains. Hhhmmm.... problem.
Issue #2: Have you shopped for curtains lately? If you have, you've probably noticed that the "popular" models involve curtains with big grommets in the top which are meant to be hung directly on rods. Second to these are curtains with loops, or those with large pockets which go directly over the rod. Only in the very back corner of the display room might there be the very rare display of curtains for traverse rods. Remember traverse rods from your mother's and grandmother's house? Remember traverse rods that held curtains which could easily be opened and closed by pulling a cord at one end? Remember how neatly curtains hung on traverse rods? How nice they looked hanging there? Yes, well... let me tell you... some designer in some tower somewhere decided that traverse rods and their neatly hanging curtains were "so last decade" and banished them to the back room of stores. Just try to find curtains for traverse rods now - go ahead, LOOK - I DARE YOU!!! I am convinced that grommet curtains were designed by some 22 year-old with a nearly bare apartment who was obsessed with change for the sake of change - with doing everything differently from the way Mom did, regardless of how annoyingly impractical the change might be!
Seriously, if you have used grommet curtains, you know what I mean. In order to open and close the curtains, you have to physically hold the curtain fabric and pull it in the intended direction. Now, how long do we think the curtain fabric is going to continue to look good, hold its shape and hang nicely after being tugged at in 2 directions at least twice a day? My mother's traverse curtains still looked good after hanging there and being opened and closed every day for 35 years! Are grommet curtains going to last for 35 years and still look good? Perhaps if the opener/closer is tall enough to reach the top of the curtains, some of this fabric-tugging can be avoided, but I can tell you that at 5'2" I need a step-stool to reach the top.
Then, let's put a piece of furniture in front of that window, shall we? At Old House, I have a large antique dresser in front of one of the windows in the master bedroom. On that dresser is an antique lamp - it was an old lamp that was converted from gas to electricity - you know, the kind with the big hand painted glass globes... Anyway, behind this large dresser and lamp hangs a set of grommet curtains - because they were the only things we could find when we wanted new curtains. Opening and closing those curtains is a nightmare for me. I have to reach over and around that fragile antique lamp, and every time I do it, I am scared to death that the lamp is going to go crashing to the floor. Would this be an issue with traverse curtains???? NO!!! So, I don't open them - they stay closed unless Hubby feels brave and risks smashing my lamp. At New House, we decided to put the couch in front of the living room window, which has grommet curtains because they were the best we could find. The only way I can open and close them is to move the couch out. Hubs uses a yard stick to move the curtains along the rod at the top. A yard stick! Yes, I could have put the couch somewhere else, but I am NOT letting the curtains dictate the room arrangement. How frickin' annoying is this?! This problem could be solved with traverse curtains!!!
The most annoying thing about all of this is that once again - the fad or trend has dictated what is available for purchase. In every single case with every single window in New House, we had to compromise and settle for less than what we wanted. I predict that people are going to realize how impractical grommet curtains are, and they will complain enough, and the trend will revert back. 5 years - that's how long I give this. In 2017 check the stores and see if grommet curtains are still "in". I predict they will be OUT and I will be the first one to be redoing all my windows!!!
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