MCD Shades

At the risk of writing yet another boring post in a sea of universally boring blogs, I've found myself at a loss for words lately. (Such pressure!)

Our month in the DFW metroplex has been far from boring. The time has flown so quickly. We've had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family. We are already looking forward to returning as soon as we can. Before we head south for Kerrville tomorrow, I thought I'd report on our latest moose modification -- our MCD shades.

We've been living with our new shades for a month. We love 'em!

When we pulled in to MCD Innovations in McKinney, TX, last month, we were planning to replace the silly pleated shades on our five biggest windows. But, after meeting with Peggy on our first morning, we decided to go ahead and replace the shades on all nine "house windows", as MCD refers to them. And, we're glad we did. The moose would look a little mismatched had we gone with our original plan. But, now Bullwinkle is stylin'!

The entire process took about three days. We arrived on Sunday afternoon with a full fresh water tank and parked in our assigned spot with 50 amp electric. Measurements and estimates were done on Monday morning. We toured the factory on Monday afternoon. Our shades were manufactured on Tuesday and installed on Wednesday. We checked out on Thursday, which was a day or two earlier than we had planned. We were fortunate to have scheduled our appointment a couple of weeks before Christmas, which is rare slow week for installations.

We purchased the "American Duo" shades, which provide two shades for each window. The "day" shade is made of a vinyl mesh that reduces solar gain, increases privacy and provides a glare-free view of the outside world. The "night" shade is a textured vinyl that blocks out all the light, providing total privacy. Both shades roll easily, and raise with a gentle tug. Unlike the original shades they replaced, the new shades are easy to clean and free of those annoying strings.

On the factory tour, we were pleased to learn that 98% of the materials MCD uses are made in America. Their goal is to make that 100%! The MCD story is one of true American entrepreneurship: Two fulltime RVers identified a need in the market (Nobody likes those stupid pleated shades!), filled it and have seen significant growth and success as a result. (Yep. They built that!)

It was a real no-brainer to have MCD do the installation. These folks know their stuff. Our installation went smoothly. Our large dining area windows provided a bit of a challenge. The space between the valance and wall met the absolute minimum requirement, which made for a snug fit for our two longest shades. One of those shades doesn't retract as smoothly as it should. So, we may have to see what we can do to improve that. The one little detail that we wished would have been addressed was the holes that were left when the plastic string holders were removed from the bottom of each window. Filling those holes will be a "to-do" for us in Kerrville. But, it would have been nice to have that finishing touch addressed by MCD.

We opted not to have shades installed in the "cockpit". MCD makes a powered windshield shade that looks great, especially on the outside. But, we're not sure how things would look inside after our drapery track and two powered visors were removed. (Remember, those small holes bug us!) Plus, that installation requires some pretty extensive modifications to the windshield framing. Another concern is we're sure that two big shades might attract the attention of our two resident dashboard dwellers (with claws). Besides, we already have a big sunscreen for the windshield and driver's window. And, we actually like our existing windshield drapes. They add a welcome softness in an area that is dominated by hard surfaces, and let in enough light to keep our moose from becoming a dark cave when the shades are drawn. We may change our minds someday. But, for now we'll save ourselves that major purchase.

One drawback of this home improvement is how easy it has made it to sleep in. With our three bedroom shades drawn, we are no longer awakened by the rising sun. As a result, at least one of us has been sleeping much later than usual.

(That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!)