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Blinds are so surprisingly expensive to buy. We learned this from moving into a home that did not have a single blind and had to go shopping for them. I have 13 windows and 2 sliding doors to find blinds/shades for!

Upon doing my research on blinds, I started getting ads from 3 Day Blinds on my facebook newsfeed (spies!). They were promoting their buy 1, get the second one 50% off. They also offered free consultation so I filled out the online form to request a date to schedule a consultation. Now, I had already gone to Lowe's and scheduled someone to come to my house and get my blinds measured for quoting too. Lowe's charges a $50 something fee to have someone come to the house and measure the blinds so that is an immediate cost if you want to get someone to come in and do a quote through Lowe's. 3 Day Blinds' quoting estimation consultation is free. However, besides for the initial quoting and measuring, everything else from Lowe's is much more inexpensive!

Scheduling
Before I show you my quotes, I wanted to touch upon the ease of scheduling for both companies. Lowe's called me the following day after I had paid my $50 something dollars at the Lowe's Store in Santa Maria to have a consultation and measuring. They were thorough with asking questions so that they can figure out if they needed to bring a ladder or not. I have two windows that are very high up so I told them they would definitely need one. We scheduled for them to come the next day on a Tuesday. So, so far the timeline is, I came on a Sunday at Lowe's, their blinds person called me the following day on a Monday and we scheduled for the measuring on Tuesday (day after the call). 

3 Day Blinds called me a day after I submitted the form. I submitted the form on a Monday and they actually allowed you to select a time and date. They called me on a Tuesday to confirm and that they're coming on Wednesday, as I had requested on the form. Therefore, the quote date from 3 Day Blinds is just a day after Lowe's in-house measurement session. 

Measuring & Consultation
When Lowe's came in and measured, I could tell the gentleman was a busy pro. He had a truck with a ladder ready to work and works for many companies and Lowe's is one of them. He used a traditional measuring tape and did it very efficiently and gave me pointers on my abnormally horizontally long window and we went with a fabric shade instead of faux wood horizontal blinds for that one. He also was the one who gave me an immense pointer that I could use 4 shades for 1 remote control if I wanted to have motorized blinds for 4 of the blinds. That way, I didn't have to order 4 different remote controls and save money. However, I realized quickly that motorized blinds are super expensive and only went with 2 motorized blinds because those are the only ones that I cannot reach.

When 3 Day Blinds came to the door, she didn't come in a truck. I noticed that right away because I was expecting her to come with a ladder but if she doesn't have a truck then she can't carry a ladder with her. I don't remember if she drove here in a small SUV or a small car of some sort, but it definitely wasn't a truck. Instantly I wondered how she was going to measure 2 of my really tall windows. When she came in, she introduced herself to me and we talked for a few minutes. At this point, I was really confused. I read online that 3 Day Blinds would bring in the samples for me to see during the consultation. She didn't have them in her hands. She was asking me what I was looking for in blinds and I told her that I don't have any blinds in the home and need new ones for all of them. I also mentioned that I am also comparing 3 Day Blinds with Lowe's. Then, she asked me if I was looking for the best price. I told her, not necessarily. I'm looking for the right blinds for my home. The truth is, of course, I want the best deal but it has to be for the type of blinds I want to get and since I found their buy one, get the second one 50% off promotion, I figured that would help me somewhat. After chit chatting for a few minutes, she said she needed to go back to her car and get her binders and then come back. So, I'm thinking she wanted to feel me out before committing to a full session with me and walking through my house to see all the windows first. That was really strange and unprofessional. I felt like I was being judged and had to meet certain parameters or something. If she was worried about wasting time, she should have gotten a conversation with me over the phone first before coming here. Maybe 3 Day Blinds could do this a bit better.

After she came back, we started with the 4 windows on the first floor. Then as we walked upstairs, she saw my high windows and told me she doesn't have a ladder so she can't measure all of them but can give me an estimate. Lowe's did a thorough measurement session while 3 Day Blinds could only 'guess' for 2 of them. However, she did measure the ones she could with the battery-operated electronic measuring tool she had in her hand. After walking through the second floor of my home, she opened up the blinds' binders with all the samples and let me see which ones I was interested in. I felt like the selection was less than what I saw in the Lowe's binders at the Santa Maria location but she said that 3 Day Blinds builds and creates their own blinds so if I order with them, I could get my blinds in and installed within 2 - 3 weeks. Lowe's said they probably couldn't get the blinds ready and installed until a month after so 3 Day Blinds does offer a shorter timeline. After narrowing down my shade color, faux wood blinds and vertical blinds, she printed my quote out from her portable printer. Even with the buy one, get one 50% off offer (and do mention it to them in case they forget to apply it), my total was still over $6,000. Wow, I had no idea how blinds could be so expensive! Then I noticed that they also charge for shipping and handling, which is something Lowe's does not charge! The installation fee is also significantly more expensive.

The sub-total was $5,975.00, package & handling was $353.76, installation fee was $944.33. The discount I got for the buy one, get one 50% for 3 Day Blinds was -$1,180.00 and sales tax was $399.03. The quote total came out to $6,492.12! I was starting to feel really dizzy when I saw all of this. Then she said if I ordered today, I would get them completed within 2 - 3 weeks, before Christmas. I told her Lowe's has not called me with their quote yet so I am waiting on that before I can move forward. I thanked her for her time and never heard from her again. 

Lowe's Great Customer Service
After the measurements have been submitted to the Lowe's Santa Maria, a lady from Lowe's at the Santa Maria location called me a couple of days after to let me know I could come in and finalize my blinds selection in person. I told her that I had looked at some patterns already and if I gave her the model number, if she could do the estimate over the phone, that would really help me out. She said "yes" and took all the model numbers from me and promised to call me back the next day. She did and the estimate came out to be just a bit over $3,000. I asked her if that included any shipping or handling fees. She said there are no shipping & handling fees when I'm ordering blinds from them. Score! Then I asked about the installation fee. She quoted that it's only $200 something. 3 Day Blinds' installation quote was over $900! It's such a huge difference. After she gave me the quote, she said I can come in and finalize the paper work because she would need me to sign a lot of papers and get my signature. I asked her if I needed to ask for her. She said anyone under the blinds department could help me. I love that flexibility because I couldn't come to Lowe's that very day. 

Lowe's Blind Selection
Even though I had thought I knew what I wanted, after seeing the blinds' folder again in person, I realized I needed to change some things again. I'm so glad they asked me to come in again to fill out the actual paperwork so that I can make sure I made the right selections. I ordered 3 types of blinds: 9 horizontal faux wood blinds (pretty standard), 2 vertical blinds and 4 shades. Because my vertical blinds were already stock blinds, I saved so much money! It just so happens that the design I liked the best for my sliding doors were stock blinds they had! Thank God! I found out that what will be delaying my installation is the shades. The shades take them longer to make because they're made out of state. Anyway, for the price, I was willing to wait a week longer and went with Lowe's instead of 3 Day Blinds. Here's the receipt of my Lowe's blinds order: 

I took advantage of their 20% off sale on certain brands for a limited time so that also contributed to the price as well. Subtotal for blinds: $2,542.77 (Combine Invoice 76761 and 76762; Invoice 23352 on the receipt was for a Gatorade my husband bought so don't count that). Tax is $219.45, no shipping and handling fee, and the installation fee (Invoice 76760) is $212.99. I want to note that since my husband is a veteran, there was also a 10% off discount added too. The total for our blinds, including all blinds and shades, taxes, installation fee came out to $2,975.21. If our family were not a veteran's family, it would have been roughly about $3,300, still significantly cheaper than 3 Day Blinds!

So there you have it:
3 Day Blinds: $6,492.12 vs. Lowe's: $2,975.21. 

It was a no brainer for me. I was willing to wait a week or 2 longer to get my blinds if that meant I was saving over 50%. In the mean time, I installed temporary paper blinds in our bedrooms so that my family have a bit of privacy until then.


I bought my temporary paper blinds from Bed Bath & Beyond but you can find them at Home Depot or Lowe's too. If you want to see them online, you can find these Redi Shade temporary paper blinds on Amazon online. I personally bought them for less than $10 each but prices may be different at your local store or with inflation. Best of all, you don't need any tools to install them! It's basically just a long sticker on the top. They stay intact pretty well in the bedrooms and when you're ready to remove them, they don't seem to strip the paint off. I got the gray ones but they also offered them in white.

 
Update:
There was a delay with our blinds from the holidays so our order didn't come until the end of January 2020 and I ordered them during the second week of December of 2019. All in all, even though it took over a month for my order to come, I was still very satisfied. Luckily for me, they arrived and installed all of blinds before the pandemic was declared in March, just 2 months after that. Whew! And I would definitely recommend Lowe's blinds if you're looking to save money.

Two Lowe's Refrigerator Purchase Experiences: One Easy, One Not As Easy

Lowe's has not let me down yet!

In 2015, we had purchased a Samsung side-by-side refrigerator from Lowe's for a home we had just purchased on the East Coast when we were living there. Because my husband, who's a veteran, receives a 10% discount for all of his purchases for his past military service, we have been regular customers. It was an easy process and a great experience from purchasing to receiving. They delivered with a two-person team, took our door apart to fit the fridge through, hooked the fridge up, put the door back on the front door and took all the trash away!

Sadly, in 2023, our refrigerator stopped staying cold enough! Even after trying to fix it ourselves, it was time to throw in the towel and we had to purchase a new one. Our milk and other food would go bad so quickly. We had moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and this fridge came along with us so there's this bit of sentimental attachment but, it was creating problems! Remembering all of our great Lowe's experiences, we decided to go to the Lowe's in our area in California and bought another refrigerator to replace the old one. This time, we ordered a side-by-side Frigidaire. They had over 3 dozens to pick from in person and we picked one that was about middle range in price. I like being able to open and close each refrigerator to compare. The personnel found a manager who gave my husband a 10% discount for the fridge. Thankfully, this veteran discounts works on both coasts at Lowe's! Now, the lay-out of my smaller California home has my kitchen located on the second floor! It's weird for a single home so, the refrigerator sits on the second floor. The Lowe's personnel had mentioned that in the notes for us and also mentioned that they needed to take the old fridge away ($50 extra cost for us for taking old fridge out). However, when the delivery people came, they came with a 2 person team. I didn't think too much about it but they asked to see the existing fridge and quickly told me, this is a 3 or 4 person job so their team couldn't hook it up! Because it is upstairs, they need more people to ensure they don't ding the walls. I totally respect that decision and policy because my movers actually dinged our walls moving our fridge up the stairs and the fridge itself got dings from the move. You can see a picture of my old Samsung fridge with dings below. So then, we had to call Lowe's and explained the situation that the delivery people told us that Lowe's needed to send a 3 or 4-person team. Now, given the situation, Lowe's did a pretty good job of resolving it. They opened a case and told us that they'd call us back. Later that day, they gave us a call and said they found a team for 4 people and will deliver the refrigerator in two days. 
(This was my old Samsung old fridge. Sorry, I didn't bother cleaning it since they were taking it away. See that big ding across both of our fridge doors? That happened when two movers were trying to move my big fridge up the stairs when we moved into our California house. They didn't take the doors apart before moving it.)
  
Two days later on D-Day, my actual refrigerator delivery day, they arrived at my house with two separate big trucks! Each truck had a team of two. I think one team contacted the other team as contractors so they could get this job from Lowe's. Well, it was obvious that Lowe's find contractors for deliveries. I don't know why but I kept wondering how much Lowe's pay these guys for delivering and hooking my refrigerator up? With this team of four, I hope they pay them well enough. Anyway, one gentleman seems to be the leader. He rung the doorbell on my door while the three other guys were busy getting the new fridge out of the box and asked me where the refrigerator was. So, I guided him upstairs where he immediately went to work and took the the old fridge doors' apart to make sure nothing gets dinged on the way down when the guys carry the main bulk down. I was pretty impressed with his mechanical skills. Then, one of the four guys was tasked with carrying the old fridge parts down while the leader continues to take more pieces apart. Before the entire old fridge went down, two guys brought the new fridge up the steps and set it down next to the old fridge. Then, one guy, who was lifting the new fridge up switched off with another guy so that he can take on the lift-down for the old fridge. I'm sure all of this lifting is terrible for their backs so if one guy needs to switch off on the lifting, that third guy offers relief. I was really intrigued by their team dynamics so I just observed without uttering a word to avoid disrupting their process.

Anyway, from the doorbell ring, fridge swap, installation and finally, cleaning up all the plastic bags and trash from the new fridge, it took their team about 40 minutes. They were efficient and I'm sure they have other jobs lined up for the rest of the day. I had asked my husband if I was supposed to tip them and he said no. So, I know Lowe's pay them to do contract work and to do these services but the current tipping culture has gotten me very confused.

Anyway, even though there was a hiccup, I am happy with both of my refrigerator purchases from Lowe's on both coasts of the U.S.A. I know I'm really tooting Lowe's horn in this post but I'm honestly happy to share about my home improvement experiences as every big purchase can be frustrating and costly as homeowners.

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