Hey,
I actually work for an upholstery company that also does blinds and window treatments. I highly recommend you take the measurements yourself to save any fees from having them come out to measure. The only thing left would be installation. Just measure the height, widthe and depth of the wood trim around the window, on it's inside points. For your glass doors, or taller windows, there is something called solar shades ( a company named graber offers them) They are a porus plastic that reduces glare and brightness but still lets you see out, and people from the outside have trouble seeing in because of the glare on the glass. You can hang the panels like curtains, but most people opt for a pull down roller shade..?

The other peice of information I have to offer is that loew's and home depot offer a competitor discount. Get a quote from both places for the exact same product and service. Then, go to the most expensive place, and they'll match the competitor price AND reduce cost by 10%-20% if you explain at the service desk. so if loews is 100$ and home depot is 110$, go to home depot and pay 90$.

Hope this helps.

I just moved into a new build so understand how the costs can escalate.

I saw a show recently where they reviewed the various blind options including the 1" pvc, 1" metal, 2" faux wood and 2" real wood. The show is The Shopping Bags (Canadian). They recommended the faux wood as the best option. They felt wood was slightly better but the faux wood was half the price.

I looked at HD and then online and found that the blinds online were significantly less expensive. They had a tutorial on measuring. I paid for the installation at my last home and was surprised that it involved screwing in two screws on each side and sliding the blind into a bracket. I think the installer finished 8 blinds in under an hour.

I like the look and functionality of the faux wood blinds. That's what we did in our last house. They were pretty straightforward to install, but we were upgrading one at a time usually, not doing 10-12 at once -- not that we couldn't do it ourselves, but with everything else going on around closing/moving time, I think I'd prefer to pay someone 100 bucks to do it.

We will definitely compare online prices to whatever we see in store! And I'm not sure how the price matching would work here since Lowe's and HD carry different brands. I can ask about that though.

Now I just have to decide if we should go with cordless blinds (we have a 1-year-old)...

I got my cafe shutters from budget blinds, they were a bit cheaper for the exact same companies blinds. I am more than happy with their products and services. My sister used them for faux wood blinds and she's happy with hers too.