I would like to tell you that we bought this house because it was the best deal for the money in the school district we wanted to be in.  (Those things are all true.  From our porch, we can see the local elementary school, which is a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence or something.)

I would also like to tell you that we bought this house because the location is perfect: tree lined streets, two blocks to restaurants, parks, schools, another five blocks to Uptown and the farmer's market, three blocks to the trolley.  (Those things are also all true.  Last night we walked to the Italian place for dinner and then to the park.  Last week, Jeff and I took the trolley downtown to go to the Steelers preseason game so we could both drink and get home.  Glorious.)

I think I might be lying, though, if I told you those things.  I think the real reason I bought this house is the windows.

Beautiful castle window. Ignore the fake plastic brick.  It's on The List.

The houses in our neighborhood were all built in the early to mid 1920s.  We're in a suburb, one of the first streetcar suburbs, as I understand it.  It's fairly urban, though, which is why we can walk to so many things.  Urban-type living comes with houses that are fairly close together.  Now, I'm from Mount Washington, where the houses are under 2' apart, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.  There's like a double driveway width between the houses here!  You'd fit an entire freakin' house there on the Mount.

All of the windows on the first floor (and one on the 2nd floor in the stairwell) that face the houses to either side of ours are stained glass, original to the home as far as I can tell.   When the sun shines through them, they are pretty much fantastic.  Even when the sun doesn't shine through them, you're not staring at your neighbor's porch.

View from our dining room

This did not go unnoticed by me when we were looking for places.  Another house for sale on this same street, in this same near-perfect for us location had replaced the pretty stained glass with plain windows.  Not interested.  (Also, the garage on that one was kinda falling down.  It had a bigger, new kitchen even, but no dice.)

In fact, when we built the kitchen, I designed it to have something like clerestory windows so we'd get the light in, but not stare at the guy next door's dog all the time.

Kitchen Windows

We briefly lost this house to a higher offer, so we kept looking.  We found another place we were preparing an offer on, a bit too far away, a great deal bigger, and it had all of it's original windows.  Not stained glass.  That house went contingent while we were getting our offer together, and then the original buyers on our place couldn't get a mortgage, so we were back in line with our secure mortgage, our plans to add on, and our love of pretty windows.

You guys, sometimes I like to search the internet for curtains I will almost definitely never buy because I am basically a complete masochist.  I am like completely incapable of spending $100 on curtains.  I can basically never bring myself to do it.

I tried to make an exception and went to Home Depot last year to buy roman shades for my living room, but we ended up getting some roman shades on clearance for $10 each.  Thirty bucks total for my whole living room!

seriously, i got them for $30 total.  go go gadget clearance!

I typed all this babbly stuff about iphones and cameras but them my husband told me how to get my picture somewhere useful.  Publishing to mobile me!  Which is apparently going away, so I do still need a picasa solution.
(I tried to take some phone pics and upload them to picasa to use on my blog, but none of my google friends are around to tell me what magic iphone app works for that.  If you know, clue me in!  Also if you have one of those online "how to take good pics for your blog" courses to recommend, let me know.  I think I need a refresher course.  I even have a nice enough camera.  *sigh*)

A Detailed View

In any case, they are red, which I love for winter, but for summer/fall I'd like to do something in a green blue palette.  Also since then we got some free furniture that is more steel blue/beige/green, so red is not really on the menu.  I can't find anything for $30, though, so I'm totally spoiled and haven't been able to take down my roman shades.

Target and JC Penney are favorite places to fantasy shop in the realm of "might actually buy", but Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware are where I look when I want to pretend like I have a zillion dollars to spend.  I should actually check out if Garnet Hill has window stuff, because MAN Garnet Hill is full of pretty.

jcp.com

These from JC Penney are really pretty nice.  And on Clearance!  Even on clearance, they are $59 a piece.  That's like $175!  Man, I am so spoiled from my $10 roman shades.

I normally prefer JCP to Target for curtain shopping online + added self loathing.  JCP seems to have easier categories to work with, but Target recently changed their website, so it's better.

target.com

These are pretty cute, and in my size they're only $44.  That's not too bad!  Still over a hundred bucks, but I am starting to believe my magic $30 roman shades were a freak of shopping.  (I mean, guys, they had a damask roman shade with a sheer roman shade all together!  lovely!  i should have bought them in every color.)

Restoration Hardware

Restoration Hardware has some fabulous sheers, especially.  But at $99 a sheer, maybe out of my $30 range.  Still lovely, and I like the idea of sheers in the living room, as long as they are pretty.  I wonder if there's a DIY way of dressing up some plain white sheers.  Maybe ribbon trim along the sides?  Hrm.

Also, it turns out that Garnet Hill does have a small selection of curtains.  Which are fabulous, of course, because it's Garnet Hill.

Garnet Hill

Lovely, and I love the colors, too.  But!  $158 a piece, so no thanks.

Someday when we are no longer under construction and have disposable income for expensive curtains...... I still won't pay $158 a piece on account of how I am super cheap.  Oh well, I will have to head back to JCP to find something more reasonable.

Why are curtains so much money, anyway?  Am I missing some magical cheap place to shop for curtains?