Except that the winding wasn't as tight as it should have been. I took it down and wound it some more, but it never did get as tight as I'm used to. I figured that was a good thing; it didn't take as much strength to pull it down or put it back up again.
We need a room-darkening roller shade in our room. Firstly, our room faces east. And as far north as Seattle is, the sun rises at 4 or 5am every morning. If I don't have a room-darkening shade, the sunlight stabs me in the eye far earlier than I'm willing to arise. Secondly, in order to keep the house cool during the summer months, I prefer to have a room-darkening shade. It keeps all the hot sunshine outside, where it belongs.
This morning, I went to put the shade up since it's not hot today, and guess what? The darn thing broke. I heard the spring snap as I tried to put it up. Oh, well. I think we paid something like $15 for it, and it gave us $15 worth of service!
So I went down to the Home Depot nearest my house. "Near" is relative; it's still 10 miles away through back country roads, but it's better than driving those 10 miles plus another 10 highway miles.
The only roller blinds I found there were the Levelor brand, which I really don't have a problem with, except that they are more expensive than the no-name $15 shades. The extra-long shade that I need in the Levelor brand was $30, which was somewhat shocking to me. But oh, well. I'll buy it.
I found a Home Depot guy (why is it when you NEED a Home Depot guy, it's like being alone in the desert with tumbleweeds dancing past you, but when you have no desire for a Home Depot guy, they're like gnats swarming around you???) and asked him to trim my blind for me. I told him my window opening was 69 3/4", but that my old blind (since I am using the same brackets) was cut so that the fabric part measured 68 1/2". I told him I need the fabric part to measure 68 1/2". Yes, I have a monster window in my bedroom.
The Home Depot guy trimmed my blind, and after browsing around a bit, I purchased my stuff and headed home. Well, first I went to Wendy's, but that's because I was hungry and Wendy's is gooooood. Once I got home, I tried to put my window blind up. I was looking forward to it since I had left the old brackets up, so I wouldn't have to do any kind of installation for once. I'd just slap the blind in the old brackets and voila! Room-darkening shades.
The damn thing did not fit into my window.
Now that said, it's possible I could fix this. I remember when Kurt bought the old shade, it wasn't cut properly anyhow. Kurt ended up having to flatten the bracket down in order to get the thing to fit into the window. I guess it was too long for the window because the bracket stuck out a half inch or so.
But then again, I don't think I want to replace a bracket. The whole idea to giving the guy such specific measurements was so I wouldn't have to install new brackets. I shall just take my old blind down to Home Depot, have them cut me a new one (but not the heavyweight version; I have to be satisfied with the medium weight version because I bought the very last heavyweight the first time), and come home and install it.
I just don't want to go all the way down to Home Depot again!! MAKE IT STOP!! :o)
Ahhhhhhhh the trials and tribulations of being a responsible, home-owning adult. Fun stuff.