Protect Your Finishes

Architects, builders and home designers draw cool houses. They capture the views of the surrounding lake or mountains with lots of windows, high transoms and even specialty shaped glass. They look cool on paper, look cool when they are being built, cost a bit of cash to purchase, and then when you move in, you are left looking out at those amazing views, lots of natural light, and more than likely, also the need to get some kind of window coverings. Did your builder budget for window coverings or blinds as part of your mortgage? Some do, but most don’t.

The average price to put blinds in a new house is $3,500 to $5,000. Sounds like a lot to spend when you’ve probably gone over budget on a few things throughout the building process and feel like you don’t have any money left. However, more often than not, window coverings are a way to finish out the interior spaces and also protect the finishes you worked so hard to pick out, so don’t scrimp on this investment.

You put in expensive hardwood flooring, trim, countertops and maybe even purchased nice furnishings — the last thing you want is the sun fading or damaging those items. Even if you don’t want to block the views by covering up the windows, you should at least put screen shades over them that provide ultraviolet (UV) protection for your interiors.

There are many options of window coverings. Some provide sheers with UV protection and vanes that tilt for light control. Some are simple roller shades that have UV blocking qualities, yet still allow you to look through your windows without impeding your view. Some have distinct energy efficiency value that save you money in the winter with heating costs, yet block sun out in the summer to keep things cool on the inside.

Almost all these options for blinds can be motorized, cordless or have simple retracting cords, which are great for child and pet safety. The days of looping cords around cord cleats is a thing of the past. The latest innovation is blinds that can be operated with your phone or tablet, like your iPad; and most can be battery operated so that you don’t need a power source to each window location. A simple battery pack comes attached to the blind and will allow you to have blinds motorized without having to demo sheetrock and hire an electrician.

You can even have your window coverings programmed to lower each afternoon when the sun is at its hottest time of the day so your house is nice and cool when you get home from work. Or you can have them programmed to open in the morning to wake you up (on your schedule instead of the 4am wake-up we get during the summer). Those of you with east facing bedrooms know what I am talking about.

If you want power and don’t want to have to change batteries once a year, have your architect design your home with power to the window locations that may be too tall for you to reach or all the windows that you may want to have window coverings hardwired.

Expect to purchase blinds approximately three to four weeks before you actually need them installed. The windows will need to be trimmed out prior to a final measure for ordering them. Window coverings are very precise, so you should have a professional measure and install them.

Bottom line — if you are building, talk to your contractor about window coverings as part of your budget. Not only do they protect your interior finishes and provide privacy, they are something you will probably use on a daily basis. Window coverings truly are an investment that shouldn’t be overlooked.

#homeessentials