Curtains

I have decided that one of the things I hate the most about living in an apartment is finding curtains. Why does every apartment I've ever lived in have abnormally sized windows?? And why can't these apartments come with ready to go curtains?? I know for a fact that this apt. had curtains (albeit crappy) left by the previous tenants when we first looked to rent, but after the land lord went through to clean and repaint they must have been thrown away. For cleanliness, allergens and such, I understand why they dispose of them but for the sake of my sanity to have to put up new hardware I would have taken them no matter how ugly.

We do live on the back of the building so it is somewhat private but we do have the occasional dog walker go past and for sleeping I like it quite dark. Currently the window in our kitchen remains curtain-less which is not of great concern at this time. I have recently installed a rod over the patio doors in the living room and was able to use preexisting holes from curtains past which appear to be secure. The problem here is that I thought I would be able to use old curtains from another apt. which also covered a patio door BUT....they are much to short and look pathetic. So I'm going to have to suck it up and buy or attempt to make new curtains that actually fit the doors.

For the spare room we actually have a nice set of curtains (which fit) that actually came from my sister Laura's old room in NB, made by Rhonda. The problem here is that there is a nasty metal support mesh that goes all around the window hidden by plaster so I wasn't able to properly screw in the middle support hardware piece. These curtains look great, just don't pull too hard!!

Our biggest problem is in our bedroom and it is all my fault but we've been too stuborn to fix it properly. We got a blackout pull down blind custom cut to the width of the window but b/c I'm not too bright I measured the actual window and not the casing so it is an inch too narrow (1/2 inch on each side). We thought we could compensate by attaching the hardware to the top of the casing instead of the sides but then we ran into the stupid metal support mesh again and the screws can only go in 1/4 inch into drywall. As you can imagine they arn't holding. I even tried to put wood glue on the the screws to help hold but of course the pulling action of the blind creates too much strain and it has now come crashing down on my head 4 times. Now that I'm thoroughly frustrated I've resorted to duct tape and an old shower curtain to cover the window.

So really I just hate having to put up curtains in general, they are expensive and a pain in the ass but I know for next time to just give in, spend the money and take the time to install them properly......or.......have someone come and do it for me!!! Any volunteers?