"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Monday, April 14, 2014

Crazy

What does a 50 something, hot flash menopausal woman do with the first 80 degree day of the season?

That's right.  She runs back inside, turns on the AC and plops her red-faced, sweating self in front of a fan. 

I have fans everywhere. 
I even took one into work.  
This girl has got to have a cooling station available at all times.

Our house is North-South facing.  Front door North.  Back door South.  Most of our "living" is done on the backside of our house.  Even our bedroom and bathroom are South facing which means that things can heat up around here pretty quickly.

Now for the past fifteen years of living here, we've managed to survive the heat using mini-blinds, curtains and the AC.  But now that my personal heat-wave is going into it's 3rd Summer, I've started to look at other possible options to help keep this place a little cooler.

They make window film that does everything from just "shade/block" the heat to the heavy duty stuff they use in Arizona that actually reflects the heat.

Another option is separate awnings for the windows.  SM is not keen on this one.

Or we could replace the existing screen material for a Solar Screen that's darker and blocks the heat. 

If any of you out there have some experience with these products please share your thoughts with me.

In the meantime, I thought I'd try a little experiment of my own.

"Whatcha doing?"  SM asked me the other day as I stood in our bedroom with a roll of heavy duty tinfoil.

"I'm taping tinfoil to the windows to see how much cooler we can make the bedroom feel." 

"Uh...you know how that's going to make the house look?"

"Yeah I know." 

We've all heard the jokes about crack house trailers with tinfoil on the windows.





"When the law comes knocking on the door just explain to them that you're living with a 52 year old menopausal woman who can spontaneously combust on the spot.  And if that doesn't satisfy them than just say that you're living with a crazy lady and it's not got anything to do with you."

"Crazy....Uh huh."  SM shakes his head and wanders away.

That's right, Baby.  Go to the happy place.




4 comments:

  1. I feel ya. We had solar screens put on our house a few months back as part of the weatherization program. The best part is it didn't cost us a dime. We're just getting into the season where they will truly be tested. Curious to see how our power bills compare to last spring/summer.
    You can find a post about them here: http://mymaplehillfarm.blogspot.com/2013/10/weatherization-series-solar-screens.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. My sister had solar screens that are removable, they really do help. They are nice because during the winter you can remove them and get the warmth from the sun. We had the film that goes directly on the windows. It worked but I didn't like the look of it. To be fair though, it was applied before we moved in and our house is old, so who know how old the film was.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to have a townhouse in Virginia that faced north/south. My bedroom would cook in the afternoon even with miniblinds. I tried the plastic filter stuff. It adheres by static so it worked fine at first but later in the summer when it dried out, the plastic got the droops. In terms of the heat, I think it helped a little and it wasn't terribly expensive. I was trying to cut my a/c bills. If you have hard wood floors, taking up the area rugs for the summer will make it feel a little cooler too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those tulips in your header are beautiful! I've tried all kinds of things, trying to keep power costs down, but keep cool (or warm) at the same time. I'd be interested in those solar screens, too. When I went through the (seemingly) endless hot flashes, I always carried around a little Chinese hand fan. Not only did it cool me off, but it built up the muscles in my right arm... :)

    ReplyDelete