A Temporary Fix

No matter what type of home you live in, from time to time you have to fix things.  You can't always get things fixed perfectly or completely right at the moment, so you improvise.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our day/night shade in our dining area breaking.  We can't get it replaced right now, so we have improvised.

The past couple of weeks we'd just been living with the shade down, but I hate not being able to look out the window all day long.  We have checked into the purchase of the MCD day/night blinds as a replacement.  Bruce called the main factory in Texas and asked a lot of questions.  They sent us out a swatch kit and directions on how to measure for the blinds.  It takes 4-5 weeks to get the blinds custom made.  There are a couple of places near where we are going to be for January.  The main problem is that the factory is shutting down for 2 weeks over the holidays, so the new blinds we need couldn't be ready until late-January.  Too late for us, we'll be in Pismo Beach, California by then and there is no installation facility.

We came up with Plan B.  Isn't there always a Plan B?  There is a dealer/installer right here in Woodland, Washington at exit 22 off of Interstate 5.  It is Dave and LJ's RV Interior Design.  We have an appointment on February 27 to get 2 blinds installed in our side-by-side dining area windows.  We've ordered them and when they come in, he will hold them until the 27th when we will be on our way back north to Tumwater.  Installation should take less than 2 hours. 

In the meantime, I came up with a weird (but effective) way to hold the broken shade up during the daytime hours so we can see out of the window for the next 2 months.
(click on any photo for larger view)

We went to Home Depot for the 10 foot PVC pipe, 2 T-pieces and 4 elbows to make this contraption.  We used a 3/4 inch size for everything.  They cut the 10 foot pipe in half and we brought it all home.  Within 5 minutes Bruce had built this silly looking support system.  Silly, yes.....but IT WORKS.  We've been enjoying the view of lots and lots of rain all day long.  At night we pull out the support systems and lower the shade for privacy.  It ain't pretty, but it will get us through until February 27th. 

One of our readers left a comment a few weeks ago about our broken shade.  They offered the helpful information that we could order a restringing kit and restring the blind ourselves.  We thought about that and then decided to just go with the new MCD blind replacement.  Eventually, when funds permit, we will replace all of the old day/night shades in the forward living area with MCD blinds to match the new ones we've purchased.  We've seen them in a 2010 Meridian DP and they were wonderful.

Until next time.....so long for now!