sorry eco-veil, i tried...

i needed new blinds. after reading this story in treehugger about a new "cradle to cradle" design, i went through the somewhat byzantine process of finding a dealer for mechoshade's ecoveil line. several months later, the installer shows up and notices midway through that they're "wrong". the eco-veil fabric is too stiff or something and none of the roller mechanisms work. apparently this happens "a lot". given the eco mantra and the high price, you'd thing they'd have some kind of quality check before shipping...

they offered to send them back and reorder new ones, but with absolutely no estimated ship date. once i realized that these shades were either going to get trucked back to the factory for "rebirthing" or thrown into the installers' dumpster, i decided the most "ecological" thing to do was just order some regular ole' blinds from a company whose fabbing facility is in san jose. the top-down shade lets in so much more light. i love it.