New Curtains, New Tip

Yesterday, I finally got some curtains up on my windows. While I've had the mini blinds since about 2001, I felt that I needed some extra light-blocking to my windows. Within the past year, the streetlights on my street have been fixed, and the school across the street has gotten their lighting upgraded and has become more energy efficient (aka BRIGHTER)... hence, my need.

So, after a few months of debate and searching for parts, it was decided that yesterday was the day to finally get these things on the wall. Grandma and Papa were to come over to help me hang them. Dad offered to stick around to help Papa with the ladders and such. It was a multigenerational event.

As my dad and grandfather open the curtain rod packages, it was discovered that the brackets that hold the rod to the wall weren't included. The original sales rep didn't bother to tell me this nor offer to sell me additional merchandise. Since the stuff I bought was on clearance (another thing I wasn't told at time of purchase), it wasn't easy to get the parts I needed in the color I wanted. Dad and Papa ended up tearing apart the display piece to get me what I needed. The lady was nice and said the the display was "no charge". I thought that seemed more than fair since I've had trouble getting matching parts and that these "new" parts were used, abused, and the wrong color...

We had lunch at Kasper's and then brought a hot dog home for Mom. As Dad and Papa hung my curtain rods, Grandma and I ironed the curtains (they had a lot of box-shaped creases). OK, Grandma did the ironing, but I did lug the iron and board upstairs and had to keep the iron full of water for her. :>) Plus, I did offer to iron as they were my curtains, but she insisted on doing it, so why my the lady unhappy?

The end result was curtains on my walls. It's not what I envisioned, but they sure look nice. Or, at least I hope they will. The curtains themselves are currently tied up. One of Papa's former trades was as a curtain guy. He says that if you tie together the curtain so that the pleats fold up like an accordian, that the pleats will stay in longer. The same goes for curtains with pleats coming from the cleaners or whatnot. So, my curtains are tied up for another two days so that the look pretty once they're open. They'll have that nice pleat line w/o the awkward ironing work.