Since we originally planned to drive to pick up our son from NJ, my husband rearranged his work schedule to accomodate that, and though we couldn’t pick him up because of the van breaking down, we spent the day at home getting some small organizing projects done. 

One thing we did that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is remove the window a/c units from the kids’ bedrooms (we don’t have one in our room).   The units were old, dirty, and didn’t work well, in addition to blocking any air from circulating when the other windows were open.  We rarely used them because of that, but somehow I resisted actually removing them because I kept thinking we might need them and then regret not having them.  As soon as they were out, and I mean immediately, the air started flowing in and cooling off the rooms.  The airflow pattern for that entire floor is now much better, and combined with their ceiling fans on hot nights they already have, it’s much cooler in their rooms.  (The morning after we took out the units, two of the kids complained about being cold in the night – and that was after a day of 95 degree heat!)

We also took out the window unit for the main floor last week.  That has been wonderful – we finally have a cross breeze!  It has been comfortable in the house this last week, though we’ve had weather in the high 90s (and the humidity is yuck!), though I guess that’s relative to what you’re used to.  If we needed it to always be 72 degrees, this would feel way too hot.  No one would mind if it were cooler, but unlike last year, when the kids were continually complaining if we didn’t put the a/c on when it was this hot outside, so far no one has said anything about it being too hot inside. 

I’ve also been doing lots of canning, which supposedly heats the house up a lot and is a bad thing to do when it’s hot outside.  I’m sooooo grateful to my husband for putting in a high quality exhaust van in the kitchen that vents to the outside when we redid the kitchen this winter.  It was a huge amount of work, and it’s not the kind of thing that someone looks at and is impressed by; it’s the kind of thing no one thinks about.  But this is another big factor in the house staying much cooler this year – the cooking heat is exhausted right out, instead of being recirculated around with the old vent hood we had.  Last year I would feel sweat tricking down my face any time I cooked in the summer, and could only manage the heat by cooking in the evenings, and that was with the a/c ON! 

It’s  mentally very freeing to me to have taken these units out, and find that not only can we live without them, we’re quite comfortable!   I feel more in touch with the weather outside, and I especially like keeping my kids appreciation for things high.  Life will be easier for them not only now, but when the get older because they are happy with what they have and don’t have high material expectations, and I encourage that by consciously not unnecessarily raising the bar. 

Avivah