Beat the heat

One more casualty of the winter storms is our heat pump. as it was a 23 year old system, this means replacing- the whole system. while we get it together to do that, we have gone back to older ways of cooling the house on hot days.Seems strange-need more sun for gardens-more shade for house., hm.

We have 8 paddle fans in the house. I also put a window exhaust fan in bedroom., it'll draw hot air up the steps and out-or that's the plan. so far, even at 90 during the day it's been fine for sleeping at night.

we did put in a room AC in the family room which has to cool at least 2 rooms (Rosie and babies must be comfy!in the living room); we can shut doors to hall, kitchen etc, and this works wonderfully. ( mostly we needed it in the time period before the trees were out in leaf,. that early heat spell was really something!Humid days are difficult;dry days not bad at all.) I can grill on hot evenings and keep heat out of the kitchen.

trees are miracles. it can be a full ten degrees cooler under the trees.( thus the desire to add some flowering trees and nice chairs to the area behind the house) For fake tree shade-umbrellas work. I have 2 on the deck. it covers the hottest part of the house during the day.I've wanted to try a sail ( triangle) over the kitchen doors but right now, I just lower the shades over the glass. keeping sun out is a big step in keeping cool.

on one corner of the deck, I've made a semi-tropical paradise. a fig tree is due in, to add to mandevilla, a fake grass mat rug, chairs and tables, a basket with geraniums. the hot red flowers are really lovely and the plants are, once again, covering the wall and helping to cool us.

We also left the bushes -bushy- this year. as long as we don't have central air-every bit of the shade provided by the bushes is welcome.( I normally cut them down by about half) I'd be putting in trellises and quick growing vines if i didn;t have large shrubs. We also lost the tree directly in front of the family room; quite a blow, it cooled the entire end of the house,mostly we want to get it down before it falls on the house. not sure what kind of replacement could be considered.perhaps a lower row of shrubs with the liriope at it's feet.

So-think it through, if one side of the house is tall, adding narrow/tall bushes or trees with more spread out bushes below can really help.trellises allow a large variety of plantings to grow, and most die back with winter, allowing the sunlight in,Simple shades, on up to thermal curtains if needed, can cut heat/glare form the windows. Fans move air. a dehumidifier might be enough if humid air is the problem and not the temperature,And a water feature will actually help; the sounds of water just speak of coolness.

Remember grandma's house? or beach houses cooled only by the breeze? take the hint-we lived without AC in the past. cutting back on machine created air-good for many reasons.