The Verdict

Larry from "KenRay Blinds" popped out to check out the split stitching on the sunblinds across the rear of the house and to give us a quote on what repair costs may be.  One of his first comments was that we had had these blinds for some time.  He said the experts give the material around 12 years before it begins to deteriorate from the sun's UV rays and we reckon we put them up soon after moving in about 15 years ago.

So he wasn't surprised the stitching was beginning to break down.There was no guarantee a repair would last any length of time as the blind material itself was in the early stages of deterioration.

They were quite expensive to put up in the first place we recalled so we began to prepare ourselves for a large cash outlay, an outlay we hadn't counted on.  The best idea he felt was to reskin the blinds, that is keep the ropes, the pulleys and other bits and pieces and just replace the material itself.

And that is what is going to happen.  They will make the new blinds up in their factory, then come out to our home and replace the blind material itself.  He estimated it at around a 45 minute job to swap the material over and our blinds would be good for another 15 years or so.

To have the current blinds restitched would have cost anything from $400 or more and there would be no guarantee for that job at all. We may get two years out of a restitching if we were lucky.

This time we have gone for a darker color, a light charcoal color, one that fits in with the dark colored pool fencing and a color which won't show the dirt and other marks as easily.

Now it is just sit and wait until the new blinds are installed.

Welcome to the 2017/18 cricket season.  My footy team got a belting last night and are out of the footy for this season.  You would say that to finish 3rd or so is about how good they really were so I am not that disappointed with the outcome.