Hi. We did as Mike suggested – we put in wiring and then made the final decisions once we were in the home stretch as to where we would go with the blinds. We also tried living without blinds in some of the rooms where privacy was not a concern (living areas, including kitchen are pretty private) to see if we really needed blinds, but we found that even with efficient windows, because of the size and number of the windows, it got incredibly hot and bright and downright uncomfortable, even with the AC cranked up. So it became pretty clear that good blinds were a must. (Glass houses are beautiful, but architectural magazines never talk about these sorts of comfort issues…)

Building a custom house involves a lot of decisions and trade-offs and it’s probably downright presumptuous of me to say this, but I would seriously recommend saving in other areas (like tiles or flooring) to create room in the budget for electric blinds in the rooms where you will want to raise them up and down on a regular basis. The interior motors were about $400 each (Canadian), as I recall. Some of the bigger windows required 2 motors. If you go with shades, you have to pay for the material anyway, so the motors would be the only cost savings if you went manual rather than electric. Ultimately, we did go manual in a couple of rooms where we thought that the blinds would be down most of the time (and they are, because we can’t be bothered to raise them by hand), but everyday when I raise the blinds in the other rooms, I am so glad we went electric in those areas.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you can access the mechanism (be it manual or electric) easily as you don’t want to be ruining and then fixing drywall if repairs or changes are indicated.

Good luck! I look forward to checking out your progress.

I did a bit of poking around, and we have discussed the issue of shades with our architects. Honestly, there’s no way we have budget for electrically-operated shades. However, putting the canister of the roller shades into the ceiling is a possibility and not too expensive. Part of the problem is that we’re not sure where we need shades; definitely the bedrooms, but we’re hoping the low-E windows will make shades unnecessary in the living areas. This is something we’ll have to decide before drywall goes up.

I wanted to respond to you on the shades point on your blog, but I didn’t meet any of the profile criteria on your blog, so I am posting a reply to you on Mike’s blog. (Which I hope is not a breach of etiquette.) You may wish to talk about shades with your architect at this early stage. The cleanest shade solutions are those where the housing is hidden, but this requires planning well in advance. You can add blinds above the windows after wards, but this doesn’t look as good. It does add to the cost, but if you have big windows, electric blinds should definitely be considered as you will want to be able to put them up and down easily to control sun and privacy. (If you want to go electric, the wiring will have to be done early as well) We found in our previous house (with hand operated shades) that the shades just stayed in one position as we couldn’t be bothered to raise and lower them. With electric blinds, we raise and lower them at will, and it is such a great convenience. (The kids love demonstrating them to visitors as well!) We went with interior blinds rather than the exterior kind that Mike used. We got a couple of quotes, but even with searching the motors were surprisingly expensive. We justified it by telling ourselves that even traditional drapes can cost a lot of money. Window coverings that are easy to use will make a huge difference in your enjoyment of the house.

We haven’t even budgeted for shades. I’m certainly hoping to spend less, but I imagine we’ll stick with hand-actuated internal shades (probably rollers). BTW, your blog has been a great help in our project.