It is official. I am a Curmudgeon.

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I recently had all my windows replaced which in a few cases, als meant new blinds. My largest window measures 104.75 inches inside and I ordered custom vertical blinds to fit. They came today. Making an exception, I actually took out the instructions and started reading them. For mounting, they clearly state to install one mount 3" from each end. OK, got that. Next it says install the remaining mounts no more than 30" from each other.

Uh-oh. The blinds came with 5 brackets. If I mount one on each end, that leaves 3 brackets. My calculator says that 104.75" minus 6" (3" from each end) leaves 98.75" and if I divide that by 3, the closest I can mount the remaining 3 brackets are 32.9167". So I go looking in the package to see if one of the brackets escaped.

Things are about to get worse. Inside the packaging, is a single piece of paper that states: IMPORTANT BRACKET INSTRUCTION CHANGES. Beneath that capitalized title are the instructions that say: "On blinds larger than 96", we have included extra mounting brackets. Please follow the instructions on this sheet instead of step 1A or 1B in the main installation instructions." And they proceed to tell me to place the mounts no more than 20" apart.

OK, back to the calculator: 98.75" / 20 = 4.9 or in real world terms, 5 brackets. So I am either one or three brackets short. Time to call the manufacturer, and it was at this point, I began changing into a curmudgeon. "Jamie" at the manufacturing 1-800 number had an accent that left me doubting his name was really Jamie. And between putting me on hold and insisting that 5 brackets were the correct number and that the three remaining brackets could be spaced 30" apart, I began to question his mental facilities. The conversation ended with him telling me to call the seller, which I did.

Without dragging this out any more than I have, the seller repeated the same thing, but in the end said she would be happy to send out one more bracket.

By now, my transformation to curmudgeon is complete. Darn idiots! Can't they do simple math???

(Note: If you made it this far without hitting the reply button, keep reading!) :D

Time goes by....

A little light comes on, kind of like the light in the refrigerator, only not nearly as bright...

If I mount a bracket 3" in on each end, then mount one 30" from those two, the math works out like this:

104.75 - 33" from one end and 33" from the other end leaves a gap between the two mounts of 38.75". Now divide that in half and the 5th mount is only 19.375 from the other mounts!

HOW CAN THIS BE!!!!! Not only am I a curmudgeon, but I'm a dumb one to boot!!

Excuse me now, I'm going to mount my stupid blinds. :o
 
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Oh, I have always been dumb. It's just that now everybody else has gotten so much dumber ...
 
Welcome to the club. We are a select group here, you know. But from what I can tell, it's a pretty large one. You're in good company. :D
 
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We had around 35 rental "Executive" houses, all built new, and I installed blinds in each of them. If they had steel or aluminum rails 3 would be fine. If they had plastic or Vinal top rails, 20 inch apart brackets will most likely droop once they get some good hot weather on them!

What I am about to say is contrary to Curmudgeoness: Just go ahead and buy (with money) another set of brackets and get them spaced in the 10 to 15 inch spacing! In my own place, I had to go to 4 different stores to find metal tracked vertical blinds. It used to be Home Depot & Lowes had two or three different models, but vinal is more profitable!

Ivan
 
I thought brackets were only for college basketball tournaments. Silly me.

And yes, math in public is fraught with peril. Embarrassment, mostly, but occasionally amusing when watching youths try to make change. In my defense, no fractions were harmed in the making of this post.

And yes, I’ll go off to my corner now.
 
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If it were me, and I'm not, and you don't mind the occasional catastrophe, I don't, I would just divide the space accordingly and install the brackets you have. Don't overthink it, don't over-engineer it, don't sweat it, and don't blame me :)
 
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Near as I can tell, if you start 3" in from one end, 6 brackets total on 19.75" centers will meet the less than 20" rule and your last bracket will be 3" from the end you started from.
Buy the seller lady a lunch, or at least give her an attagirl.
And don't bother with the overseas "support" unless it's about IT.
In my experience most of them work from a script, and if you go out of those bounds, you'll go around in circles until the top of your head explodes from high blood pressure.
 
This was when my "codgerness" arrived. It was on 5/3/21. I think I was already a "curmudgeon" :)

I arrived at full "codgerness" today (5/3/21). I wear bifocals (of course). I had gone to FedEx this morning. While waiting to be served, I took my glasses off and hung them in my shirt opening because I was getting annoying "mask fog". I see well enough to maneuver through the shipping process until it comes to reading. When the clerk asked me to verify the addresses on her little screen, I reached up to retrieve my glasses from my shirt top..... NOT THERE !! -- $#@!&#%@!......I tell the clerk I can't read a thing without my glasses as I am patting myself down and looking around to see if I had laid them on the counter. She then asks me ..... "Are they different from the ones you are wearing ?"
 
This is why REAL men don't read instructions...

If you're afraid that visitors to your home will notice that the brackets for your blinds are not aligned properly then have them installed by a professional. :confused:
 
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