I love where we live. We live on our own, in an affordable place, that’s small (less cleaning) but not cramped (except the dang kitchen). It’s a great suburb and close to almost anything you could want.
But one shortcoming has become clear this summer: lack of ventilation.
At our last house, our bedroom had three sets of windows. In our studio/1-bed, our main room/bedroom has a large sliding door with no window opening. There is a tiny window at the far end of the kitchen with glass slats, and another smallish window in the bathroom at the far end, so they’re both basically useless for cooling the bedroom. I don’t like the idea of leaving our sliding door – FRONT door, basically – open at night, even if we shut our gate.
With temperatures soaring, we’re forced to rely on a fan. And even our little fan is costly to run.
Also, lately I almost wish we had the space to accommodate couch surfers. Two houses ago, we had two or three Americans stay with us, and it was pretty good fun. But right now, we don’t even have a couch, let alone a guest room.
Am I missing a really obvious way to cool us down at night? And do you play host enough to warrant having a guest bedroom?
LIFE
The single best post I’ve read in a long time from Make Under Your Life – Don’t turn your wants into have-tos.
On one of the newest additions to my Reader, Eat Move Write tackles a thorny reader question: reaching out to overweight siblings.
Via Conventional Freedom, why lifestyle design is a pyramid scheme.
I LOVE these film roll wedding invitations, via Geek in Heels.
Distractible Jane blogs about dog breeding and how to choose an animal to adopt.
SassyGirl returns home after four months abroad and realises where her new life lies.
Want to learn a new language? Zen Habits shares the keys to succeeding.
Melissa on why tradesmen > suits (or in her words, scrawny corporate geek).
Funny About Money on bag-lady syndrome and why she’s afraid of ending up sleeping under a bridge (she has more logical reasons than mine).
Do the people in your life know what they mean to you? Emily Jane’s post has helped me crystallise at least one goal for the year (hopefully I’ll have a proper post up sometime this month).
Yes and Yes tackles a delicate topic in True Story: I Had an Abortion.
Alisha at Stratejoy shares five ways to give back.
FOOD
Kyla Roma shares a divine looking recipe for sea salt chocolate chip cookies.
Poor Girl Eats Well has a red quinoa and asparagus salad brewing, which I need to jack up a version of quick smart.
Cauliflower is good. Indian food is better. Cauliflower takari = a win, surely. And cauliflower rice.
Another veggie meal: Cuban beans and rice from Liberal Simplicity.
I love this. Food confessions from Dinner: A Love Story (notice how many more the male half has??)
WORK/MONEY
Investing Newbie is back! Here she shares some strategies for fellow jobhunters.
Jackie at Money Crush explains how to find your “something” that will make you money.
Debt Ninja weighs up a difficult decision: dream city, or dream job, pay cut, and a city lottery?
What communication skills do you wish you’d known when you were starting out? Amy at Just a Titch needs ideas for a class she’s teaching.
Kommein explains what it’s like returning to an office after working as a freelancer.
I’d never thought about this, but Write Around It All had a great post on what the “free” in freelancing really means.
While I enjoyed my magazine journalism paper, it really wasn’t all that useful in many ways. Dollars and Deadlines is great for the nuts and bolts – here she gives an example of a query letter.
Allison at After Graduation’s take on the old “it’s better to have failed than never to have tried” mantra.
Small Steps for Big Change wonders how she might fill up her summer – there are a LOT of options.
MoneyCrush explains why you should create a bare bones budget even if you don’t use it.
Awesome for the blackhead tip alone. Budgets are Sexy on three health-related frugal hacks.
Thanks for the link love!
You still have the sliding door that’s worrisome, right? Well…. If you’re renting, you’ll need to check with the landlord about this, but it’s actually an improvement on the property so you might get it approved. The previous owner installed one of these on my bedroom slider.
Get a sturdy sliding bolt, the sort that goes on the inside of a door and slides into the doorjamb. They make them for metal doors, with a metal strap that the can slide into; the one I have seems to have been made specifically for a sliding door.
Bolt or solder the sliding bolt vertically to the bottom of the frame on the side AWAY from the opening. Open the door wide enough to allow air to flow in nicely but not wide enough for an adult to squeeze through. Mark where the bolt would touch the concrete with the door in the desired position.
Drill into the concrete slab (or wooden floor, if that’s what you have) to make an opening big enough for the bolt to slide into it. Reinforce this with the strap or … I have no idea what this thing is called, but it’s metal piece that the bolt can drop into, which can be secured to the floor and metal track. A good handyman would know what this lash-up looks like.
Then you can leave the door open enough to ventilate the room without worrying about any unwelcome visitors strolling in. Because the lock is on the part of the frame away from the opening, no one can reach in and unlock it. A screen door on the outside will discourage bugs and small quadrupeds.
I really appreciate the link love! Glad you found my post useful.
I don’t really have any ideas on getting more fresh air into your place — mainly, I’m just jealous that it’s summer where you live!
We also have a sliding door as our front door, and it just gets WAY too hot to not have it open, so we took a piece of wood – like a 1×2, or something, or something sturdy, and put it in the sliding part, so the door is open, but you can’t open it up anymore because the stick stops it. It’s not open enough for a body to get through it, just a few inches and it definately provides relief!
Maybe you should use what I use – a $12 “desk fan” from Kmart. It cools me down enough, but i’m sure that it doesn’t cost that much to run, considering how small it is! Or maybe you guys should invest in one of those lock-able metal mesh doors to go on the outside of your sliding door, if you plan to live there through a few summers. Those would be expensive though.
Also – thanks to your huuuge list of links, I don’t know how i’m going to get off the computer now! haha
You need to open the windows! In my last apartment, my roommates cat (I hate cats!) clawed out ALL of the screens so we could only crack the windows slightly or he’d jump out. It was the death of us!
Open up everything and put fans in the windows and doors to bring in the cool night air; in the morning, lock everything down and cover the windows to keep out the hot sun; when the house warms up and you need to give up, turn the fans around and blow the air out of the house–the breeze will feel nice but you don’t want to be sucking in even hotter air from outside.
Can you tell I’m a New Yorker?
I would try one of those fans that look like it is a heater that pump cool air in rather than blowing the hot air around. That should help cool you down a bit.
I find I have a similar problem in winter, when I’m cooking I need to get the garlicy foody smells out and have to open a massive window to do so, freezing me in the process. The price we pay for living somewhere we love I guess.
Interesting links, I really like this blog format, usually people just link other interesting entries but I really love how you’ve put them into categories and they are helpful or fascinating. That and I have been looking for a receipe for Cuban beans and rice for ages.
Thanks for the link love! <3
It's hard to even think of the heat right now but we have the same problem in our apartment in the summer. Unfortunately, we didn't really find any tricks. I remember a lot of suffering in the heat. Ahahah. But I do suggest opening the windows at night (because the air will eventually cool down) and making sure the blinds are closed during the day.