At Home with Lisa: Close curtains to stay cool this summer

One of the main features of my home that I love is that there is a window in every room. I have bay windows in my kitchen, I have large windows in my living room, I even have windows on my front and back doors.

I love the natural light, but in the summer, that light translates into heat. During these extremely hot summer days, I try to keep the house cool without using a lot of energy.

In the front room, I close the curtains in the afternoon. They face the south, and although I have large maple trees out front to give me lots of shade, during the later afternoon hours the heat radiates through those windows if I don’t have the curtains closed.

My kitchen’s windows face the east, and early morning sunshine often starts to heat the room. Last year, when the temperatures started to rise, I put aluminum foil over the windows to block the sun. I simply mixed a little dishwashing liquid and water in a spray bottle, sprayed the windowpanes, and placed the foil. This was a cheap and easy last-minute fix during a heatwave, and it worked, but I didn’t want to keep the foil on my windows forever.

This year, I recently installed some honeycomb blinds. They were super easy to install. Once I screwed in the hardware to the top of the window, the blinds just popped right in. I love these things. They block the heat, but they still let in lots of light.

Lisa, an Avista customer, bought her 1910 house because she loved the old-world character, some of which doesn’t make her house very energy efficient. Lisa is sharing her experience on taking some simple do-it-yourself improvements to inspire others to do the same. You’ll find her stories right here every Tuesday morning.