Many years back, I consulted with a couple who were nearly finished converting their home to a mother-daughter. The daughter and her husband would occupy the main floor while Mom & Dad would reside upstairs. Dad made it clear that Mom knew what treatments she wanted and he was just going to rubber-stamp her choice.
The mother was a courteous person with a warm, sunny disposition. She was looking for high-end aluminum mini blinds in their living area to complete the reno and make the house a home again.
From what I could see, the contractor had done a nice job on everything. Good quality double-hung windows were trimmed by wide profile moldings. The house was of 2” X 4” construction so there was no room for inside mount. I explained this to Mom. Her face froze when she realized that the fancy window trim would be hidden by the blinds. I could feel the chill descending on the room as she turned, glaring at her husband. Dad mumbled something like a bad Ralph Kramden imitation. “Hummenuh, hummenah, hummenah” was what I heard.
“You & she (the daughter) decided everything about this project and all I cared about was my window treatments. Now, I can’t even have those the way I want!”
With the temperature in the room dropping dangerously, there seemed to be little hope for a sale. “Well, I think you folks will want to talk this over and you have my number.” I beat a hasty retreat before things got ugly.
Seriously though, this problem could have been avoided. Talk to your contractor about window depth. You will pay more for it but window jambs can be built out from the wall and the trim back shimmed under the edges. I knew because I had already had a similar discussion.
Before I got into the window treatment business, I did a bit of remodeling in our home. Having just completed the trim in one of the bedrooms, I called my wife in to praise my handiwork. Instead, she asked:
“Where do the blinds go?”.
“Uh, I don’t know but didn’t I do a great job?”
“I don’t see how we can put blinds on that window now. Why did you do it that way?”
On the next project I extended the jambs past the drywall.