Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Moving expenses - window treatments

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Update (March 28, 2006):
I thought you might want to know that we ordered our windows from Lowes earlier this week. We we asked them to lower their prices and they agreed to lower all non-labour costs by 10%, which brought the price down to about $1500.00 - what a pleasant surprise -- ask and you shall receive.

They tried to encourage us to buy a more expensive line of product ($500 more expensive), but we stuck to our guns. Unfortunately, this really is an unbudgetted expense for us, so I'll have to carve it out of savings or cash flow or both. I think our savings are going to take a hit with this move, which is quite unfortunate, but in part necessary.

Also, I've asked them to put blinds on a few more windows in the garage. It's important when traveling to make it difficult to see cars in the garage.

Original post (March 23, 2006):

I met with a window treatments professional early this AM and we reviewed his custom estimates for window treatments.

Bottomline: Custom is 50% - 80% more expensive, but higher quality.

The biggest difference is that he wouldn't quote faux wood - he felt they would yellow more easily. Certainly faux wood blinds that actually imitate a natural color look patently artificial, but solid colors such as white, green, blue, etc... look just fine. So, I can't give a true apples to apples comparison.

Here's my comparison chart (BTW, anyone with advice on how to post charts on blogger - please share it - thanks - I did this by saving the spreadsheet as html, viewing source then copying it over):



Window Treatment Comparison
2 inch thick plantation blinds
# Windows27
LowesMr. CustomMr. Custom
Blind TypeFaux WoodCompositeWood
Blind Cost$1,296.00 $ 2,181.86 $ 2,485.22
Measuring$ 30.00 $ - $ -
Installation$ 351.00 $ 343.50 $ 343.50
Total$1,677.00 $ 2,525.36 $ 2,828.72


I'm going to go with Lowe's. I've put my $30 measuring fee down and we'll see what happens.

I'm a bit suspicious about the claims on how quickly they will yellow. We'll have to see.

Have a wonderful Thursday,

Making Our Way

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