babyblog

Blind

I apologise for the tedium of the household related entries but anyone with a bit of taste out there, I need your advice.

This place has approximately 38 feet of west facing windows in the living room / dining room. It also has 2 skylights in the ceiling. There's a nice view out of the windows down the valley (and if you crane your neck you can see the tips of the Olympic mountains) but obviously it gets the full brunt of the sun pretty much all day long. And the roof, being without any kind of loft as it slopes up to the top, is not well insulated. This means it can get pretty bloody hot.

Last week we had clear skies, sunshine, and temperatures somewhere between 0-6 celcius. In otherwords, not very warm outside. Despite this, I had 3 lots of curtains closed all day because of the heat / glare, the patio door OPEN, the kitchen window OPEN, and the heating off, and the house still managed to heat up something crazy.

I've got curtains with sheer panels under them on 3 of the windows and nothing on the patio door as yet (desperately need something) and nothing on the skylights (also desperately need something) to reduce the heat / glare. The curtains basically look scruffy and the sheer panels do nothing to keep the heat out, I have to close the whole lot entirely and then it's gloomy not being able to see outside.

I went down to a window-treatment store last week and asked for some advice and the woman told me that the best thing would be 'cellular shades' as they block out significant heat. I could also raise them up OR down, depending where the sun was, to allow some light in, during the day. They're relatively inexpensive. I have small kids who are going to put their fingers on them and get them skanky. You can also put them on the skylights with huge success (think Velux blinds, Brits) and she says you can put them on the patio doors too. It would solve heat / glare problems. But I am concerned about lack of light problems a little......

Mum suggested Vertical Blinds on the doors to allow more light in but decent non-office-reminding-type-ones are expensive and the kids will trash them. These ones are quite nice though.

Any thoughts? Any alternatives that someone can offer me for ideas? Tedious stuff I know but sitting here sweltering mid February when it's cold outside is beyond a joke and the summer is going to be even more unbearable (although I do intend to get some kind of air conditioning installed before then!).