Tuesday, May 19, 2009

This is fabulosity, people

Noun
Duct tape
1. A generally gray waterproof "tape" used for many purposes, and possessing nearly mythic status in American culture. It is no longer used for constructing duct-work, as building codes require a special heat-proof tape and the technology of ductwork has moved on.

Son, it’s time you learned to use the family duct tape.

Verb
to duct tape
(transitive) To use duct tape in order to one object to another.

The government tells us we can protect against chemical attack by duct taping the windows.

**excerpt above is taken from Wiktionary.org; please keep this handy for later in the fabulous post.

As I have stated in previous posts our house is new, not just new to us but newly built. It is not a custom home, I don’t think they exist anymore except for the extremely wealthy, but it is semi-custom. Meaning we were able to use builder offered options for an additional cost to make the model of home that we chose work best for us. One of the options we chose was to enclose the proposed two-story foyer and add extra space to the master bedroom. The builder called it a “sitting area” I called it a place to put a dresser, rocking chair, crib and diaper genie. Either way it netted us this “cute” little window in our bedroom.


Cute does not equal practical. The remainder of windows in our house are covered with temporary vinyl blinds that we will use until they un-stick from the window frame or we have the funds to purchase fully functional blinds. You can't really tell they only cost us $5+ per window, or maybe you can, but they do the job. Unfortunately, these lovely little disposable blessings don’t work in said “cute” arched window. We have yet to find a suitable cover for the window. When the girls were still rooming with us, as I stated, the crib was in the sitting area of our room directly across from the window with no covering. As spring approached the moon began to take a different path across the front of our house and would be shining into the crib like a flashlight added to the lights from our neighbors across the street, 5 lights on one house, all night long GEEZ! on a clear night around 2 o’clock in the morning. This didn’t seem to bother the girls since they are still waking up in a completely dark room, but it annoyed the heck out of me. So I implored my husband to please do something. Find a cheap mini-blind anything to help me stay closer to asleep, plus I prefer to sleep in the dark and privacy during the daylight hours. This is what he came up with –



And upon further inspection what is that holding it up. Yes indeed I have duct tape on the wall in my master bedroom.



Please note I am in no way, shape, form or fashion intending to insult or demean my husband. I think his idea was ingenious given the window’s “cute” shape and supplies readily available. We had a good laugh at this fabulousity. We even joked that his techniques might fit right in at a local trailer park. And when it has begun to slip or come undone my husband has added more tape to properly secure refastened our make shift curtain to the wall.

At our old house I did this to our front door, but it takes a lot of time and that my friends time is something I don’t have a lot of and it also didn’t do much to keep the light out.



So now is the time throw out some ideas, suggestions or just share a laugh with me.

Does anyone have any suggestions for covering my “cute” window? My hope is that it will not include duct tape or a bath towel, but will still keep out the streaming moonlight and the light from our energy saving neighbors.

3 comments:

Karan Barnickel said...

Hi Heidi,

You could use a small spring loaded tension rod and slide into a pillow case to act as a curtain. Just a suggestion but trust me my husband would have done the same thing. I chalk it up to just being a man and the way they think. (nothing like a woman) Ha!Ha! It sure made me laugh. Note, the children are beautiful and growing so fast.
Love

Karan (your cousin)

Anonymous said...

We had a funky window problem when we lived in LA. Lowes or Home depot sells a roll of what looks like contact paper, it goes on the window and looks like stained glass or clouds,they have a variety of patterns. It lets in some light but no one can see in. It is temporary but it looks nice until you get a custom blind or what ever you want.

Anonymous said...

above comment was from Jaime, I forgot to put my name.