All-u-min-ee-um

You know, installing mini-blinds is a lot harder than it looks. As you may recall, we ordered two Bali horizontal blinds about 3 weeks ago at JCPenny. A week after the purchase, they were sitting pretty on our porch. Oh man were we pumped to see the brushed aluminum slats in the flesh. As always, I fished for the instructional sheet and read thoroughly, step by step; easy peasy! And then, the "wtf" moment entered the room.

Chris: "Where's all the hardware?"

Me: "Um, in the box labeled hardware."

I dumped the said contents on the table.

Chris: "Why do we only have two brackets and eight nails?"

Me: "I-don't-know."

Chris: "Maybe each blind only needs one bracket?"

Me: "I don't think one bracket will solely support a 95" long blind"

Chris: "wtf"

I phone customer service and to my surprise, pressing 1 option was specifically for missing hardware issues. Five minutes later, our missing hardware were on its way.

To make a long story short, it took us a total of, oooh 1 hr to install two measly blinds. And of course a few "extra" holes kindly made an unexpected appearance.

A couple of suggestions and tips for any future inside mount blind installer. 

1. Use a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw that will be used to tighten the brackets. In our case, the screw smoothly made its way through the drywall but once it hit the wood, oooh child, was it rough! Three drill bits tries plus 4 stripped nail heads later and we were golden. Getting the first two brackets secured took about 40 minutes. The final three took 5 minutes.
2. The template attached to the instructions sheet was a lifesaver! It precisely helped us mark the spots with no hassle.
3. Make sure the 3rd and middle bracket is not aligned to any of the string grabbers. We learned this will prevent the slats from opening and closing, hence the 4 punctured holes up above. Seems like information that should have been pretty upfront in the instructions.
4. Your forearms and shoulders will get a nice workout. In no time you'll be sporting guns akin to those of Taylor Lautner's. Ok, I may be embellishing a bit.

Other than that, I would say our blinds fit nicely in our new room. 

  

::open::

::closed::

I don't think Uncle Kitty approves. Her window peeping time has come to a halt.

p.s. We still have to taken down the curtain rod which means more spackling and tackling. Sigh.