For the past few weeks, Carmen has been looking at curtains for the apartment.
I'm not a big fan of blinds, so that never really was an option. There's always those timber blinds, but because the apartment faces east (thus the curtains/blinds have to fulfill some sun-blocking), and also there's one huge mother of a set of French doors on one wall, they're rather impractical.
So Carmen got a couple of quotes for the curtains.
$3500.
Holy shit.
Needless to say, she's now busy getting more quotes!
Are curtains supposed to be this expensive? I need them to cover the big-ass French doors (almost 3m wide, and just over 2m tall), a couple of bedroom windows, and a full-height single doorway.
Posted by davechan at December 10, 2003 09:32 AMYou bet. A mate just bought his house (it's handy working for a building company) and starting putting the "added extras" in like curtains, trinkets, and paintings. All up he's already spent $50,000 on these extras, and that one heavy draped curtain in his master bedroom cost him $5,000. Makes you think twice about drying yourself on the curtains when you can't find a towel, no?
Posted by: dazk at December 11, 2003 01:50 AMOh come on, you can probably buy curtains off the shelf from K-mart for a fraction of that price! I suggest you browse around a fabric shop (they'll have a section devoted to curtain fabric) to get some idea of what the raw material costs. There's probably a big price difference between the cheap stuff (probably revolting plastic), the middle-of-the-road stuff, and the posh stuff.
If anyone dries themselves on my curtains, I'll shoot them.
Posted by: davechan at December 11, 2003 06:13 PMSpotlight has a curtain making service. Merrill got her curtains made through them last time. However, I do believe curtains ARE that expensive :-(.
At least Spotlight provide free measure and quote. Check out:
http://www.spotlight.com.au/custom_made/special_offers
The idea of somebody drying themselves on a curtain never occurred to me before. I imagine it might look a bit strange to the neighbours. Anyway, now I won't be able to look at a drape without thinking about a glistening wet body.
Sheesh Dave, your blog is just smut, smut, smut! (Special thanks to dazk :)
Posted by: Todd at December 12, 2003 12:49 AMCan't you just by the material, and then sew them yourself when you get back to town? ;)
Seriously though, has that new HarbourTown gotten a curtain store or something? It might well be worth looking at....There is always the quokka or something also, or would 2nd hand offend you aesthetic sensibilities....?
Todd, get someone over in China to hand sew some curtains for Dave....lmao. Send them over as a housewarming gift lol
(This is where I insert my apologies for being a little loopier than normal, I have the cold, and am not my self.)
Posted by: lisa at December 12, 2003 01:31 AMHahaha Dave making curtains... while it may initially just seem like a big piece of material, I tried making a simple banner out of sheets of black material and totally botched it up. Ended up stapling the bloody thing together - that did the job. :)
Todd, (actually, to all other readers of this blog) apologies for bringing up the glistening wet bodies/curtains/neighbours correlation. *shudder*
Posted by: dazk at December 12, 2003 02:50 AMShit, have my neighbours in Sydney been taking photos???!!!
:)
Posted by: davechan at December 12, 2003 09:03 AMUpdate on the curtains: Curtain World gave us a quote for $2408. Still expensive, but $1100 less than the other two!!!
Posted by: davechan at December 12, 2003 09:05 AMWhy apologise? I mean, that image was enough to get me through the day...I mean, all I did was insert Vin Diesel into the fantasy, and all my bases were covered. Mmm, and if only on the other side of my apartment lived Orlando Bloom, and I would STEAL all their towels....Thanks, you've taken stalking to a new level, dazk! ;)
Posted by: lisa at December 13, 2003 05:28 PM