It’s been a slow summer for home progress. A series of family visits and the passing of my dear mother have taken our time and energy.
I was also hospitalized three times and I’m getting tired of it. I’m having complications from emergency surgery I had in 2016. Was referred to another specialist so we’ll see if anything can be done.
In the meantime my biggest project is tiling the last shower but I can’t get motivated to start. Now that it is late summer and has been very hot I’m working on modifications to alleviate the heat.
The latest has been installing shades over the sliding glass doors. These are shades I purchased from a craigslist ad.
Craigslist Blinds
I only purchased four of them, all 56″ wide. I believe I paid $40 for them. I bought these to hang last summer but had them in storage for a year. Just too many tasks to get done.
They are supposed to be Hunter Douglas shades and they were apparently purchased from Spectrum Window Design in Denver.
Spectrum Shades
They use Rollease plastic chain mechanisms to glide up and down.
I used the internet to figure out how the mechanisms worked. And found the instructions at Sun Control.
Rollease Installation
The instructions seemed very straightforward, but using the upholstered valences made the task more complicated. I finally just removed the fancy material and installed the blinds with the bare cloth covered boards they came with. I didn’t know that one of the blinds was longer and therefore had a larger clutch. I installed the longer one in the middle window but with the small clutch bracket and that didn’t hold the shade correctly.
I figured that out but then I noticed the heavier blind was pulling out the header board so I installed screw anchors but just for that one. Not all of the sets of blinds fit the boards as set up. So I found myself measuring the distance and moving the brackets more than once. I also had a difficult time getting the plastic stops in the correct position. I would often place it on the wrong side so that once up the shades could not be unrolled.
 Large clutch |
 Small clutch |
 Locking hub |
I did not realize until the very end of the job that the clutch could easily be slipped out of the tube and slipped back in the right position to maintain a fully rolled up shade.
But eventually the shades were installed and they do a great job of keeping the sun from shining on my radiantly cooled floor.
And the fourth shade fit perfectly with an inside mount in the extra bedroom north window.
