Destination Dallas: Our Commencement Homebuilding Debacle

Oh, almond windows, how I detest thee. 

I suppose it was natural springtime to happen. 

For weeks, I’ve been obsessively pondering every foursquare inch of our novel abode (while "watching" Beauty together with the Beast, I was truly mulling over my vestibule flooring). But it wasn’t until this weekend that I noticed a unmarried word, buried inwards the contract, that sent me reeling: almond.

I was flipping through the thick document, trying to discovery the dimensions of the living room windows together with therefore I could firstly thinking nearly curtains, when I spotted it. Somehow, I'd missed it before: Our windows are non white, but rather almond (or, equally the builder calls it, “sandstone”). Panic chop-chop ensued. 

Our pigment color on the left, window frame on the right.
(The pigment color is grayer inwards reality than it looks here.)

One room inwards our electrical flow house, the sunroom, has cream-colored window frames, together with earlier nosotros establish out nosotros were moving, I devoted a lot of fourth dimension together with mental infinite to figuring out how to disguise them, supervene upon them, or pigment them. Now I’m going to convey non simply off-white—but sand-colored—window frames inwards EVERY ROOM OF MY HOUSE. 

The sunroom of my electrical flow house, inwards all its cream-colored window glory.

Our builder together with designer discussed with us every other especial of the home—whether the front end door, the door knobs, the flooring, the outlets—but for about argue neglected to cite the almond window frames. My builder's explanation: Everyone inwards Texas straightaway uses them—they’re designed to blend with the earthy-colored exteriors—so they don’t fifty-fifty consider it worth discussing. That leaves me to add together “non-white windows” to my listing of Texas real-estate oddities, with (mostly) non-white ceilings together with textured walls. 

In the model home, the beige windows create seem to blend, fifty-fifty with grayness walls,
together with therefore perchance I'm beingness overdramatic? Only fourth dimension volition tell!

Unfortunately, past times the fourth dimension I noticed, the windows had already been installed, together with we’re non nearly to fork over thousands of dollars to modify them (according to the builder, they’d simply convey to live on trashed or donated to Habitat for Humanity). My final promise is that they tin live on painted; we’re waiting to discovery out if doing together with therefore volition void the warranty. Otherwise, I’m simply going to convey to rely heavily on curtains, blinds, together with shutters. This is where I would insert a lamentable human face upwards if I used emojis, although my sis has been ane origin of solace, offering her ain home-decorating crisis equally a lesson. 

When she installed bamboo blinds, she fretted for weeks over the long cords dangling inwards front end of her windows, together with musical rhythm out herself upwards for non spending a piffling to a greater extent than coin for the cordless version. But eventually, she stopped noticing the cords entirely—and suspects I’ll create the same. So here’s hoping that my ugly windows eventually “disappear”—even if they can’t physically live on replaced—and inwards the meantime, I’ll file this away equally a lesson for the future: Don’t always assume anything when edifice a house.