My wife has been pressuring me to get a bigger, nicer home. She wanted to put our home on the market and roll the equity into a bigger one. Trouble is our (my) timing couldn't be worse. I should have listened to her earlier. But, frankly then we (I) would have a bigger house bought at the peak of the market. Yikes! My wife is not happy so I needed a solution.

What we (she) decided to do instead, and thank God this worked to appease her, was to spruce-up our existing home with some cool new window blinds. I went to Home Depot and 3 Day Blinds and saw what I liked but I was a little put-off by the price. A friend told me that you can purchase the same blinds online at a discount. Yeah, right! Who buys window blinds online? How would that even work?

Turns out more people then I thought and, where there's a buck to be made, there's clever people who are making new things possible. And, where's there's a buck to be saved there's people willing to try new things. I guess I am now in the latter group because the next day I surfed the internet for the same things I saw at the regular stores. Which I think helped in the long run as I kind of knew what I wanted.

I did a search for vinyl mini blinds and cellular blinds. The first was my inexpensive option and the second was my wife's choice. I learned that cellular blinds, though more expensive can help save money by insulating your home. So, I guess if you are thinking long term cellular blinds would make more sense. Or, so my wife says.

I found a website that I liked and surfed to the appropriate categories. It turns out that all you need is to be able to measure windows, even I can handle that. But, I was concerned about installing them myself. I am about as handy as a sack of wet mice. So, I decided to call the online company and hit them with the tough question: what do I do with them once I get them? I was ready to here some bogus answer but the person I spoke with ended up convincing me that the blinds come with detailed directions and, furthermore, if I could drive a screw into wood, I would be able to handle hanging a set of blinds.

Ok, fine, but which ones? That was even easier, the wife overruled the cheaper vinyl mini blinds and we ended up buying some nice Hunter Douglas cellular shades for 3 bedrooms and the living room. The cost savings was pretty significant ? like 35%. We got the blinds and spent the better part of a Saturday installing them. It's funny how a simple change like adding new blinds can change your perception of the house you spent the last 5 years in. It was like a new home and I found myself cleaning more and even thinking of new improvements. Maybe I will mow the lawn. Funny how that works.