Growing up there was one summer when Mom made some offhand comment about finding a new place to live and I ran with it–scouring the rental ads in the Sunday Homes section of the paper, reading her likely options. I remember reading one in particular: 3 bedroom, 2 bath…window air. To which I said:

Window air? Like, what, you open the window and there’s your air?

This was one of many times, growing up, Mom wondered how I could be so smart and so dumb at the same time.

It’s worth noting that we didn’t have air conditioning in those days and the summers routinely topped out at 106 and 107, so even a window unit would have been an improvement over the box and oscillating fans we were depending on for our creature comforts. That and the cheap movies we’d go see on Sunday afternoons for a few hours to beat the heat.

Since moving out right after high school I’ve been fortunate enough to always have central a/c. We have it here in the Dollhouse, too, of course, but the upstairs unit just can’t quite hack it during the summer and it’s a bit of deja vu to have oscillating fans pointed at our bed to keep it just below broiling each evening. But it was working, mostly, and it was just temporary until we could either upgrade the upstairs a/c, vent and/or insulate the attic, or come up with some other solution.

I’m almost ashamed I didn’t think of a window unit until Todd brought it up last week, but once he did I was totally on board and asked the very important question

And what sort of time frame are we talking about?

Because, truly, Todd is a ponder and consider a while before acting sort, and it’s late July already and not getting cooler. Thankfully he was ready to act on it and we made a stop by Lowe’s on our way to dinner, Friday night, two pick up two of these beauties.

We dithered a bit over what size to get. A 5,000 BTU unit cools up to 150 sq ft, which was a little under the size of our bedroom and definitely smaller than Todd’s office across the hall (the destination of the other unit). I was good with going up just to a 6,000 BTU unit, promising to cover up to 250 sq ft, but Todd pointed out that we do like things pretty cool and it wasn’t that much more to get a slightly larger unit. Which is how we ended up with 2, 8,000 BTU units, promising 350 sq ft of cool.

Not to spoil it or anything, but Monday heard Todd saying it was easily the best $500 we’ve spent on the house to date.

I did have a condition about the window units, that they not be hanging out of any front-facing windows. Thankfully each room in question has side windows that face the side and while the one in Todd’s office would be visible from the street, it still wasn’t as obnoxious as it would have been poking out of our bay window!

My other concern was installation–don’t these sorts of units require a platform for the back end to sit on? And wouldn’t that be a bit tricky up on the second floor with Todd’s wrist still not back to fully functioning? Apparently not, as the more modern units are small enough to rest on the window sill and be held in place by the window itself.

I was shocked at how quick it was to install!

As promised, the unit sits on the sill and the bottom of the window sits down into a plate on the top of the unit. And it only took 5 small screws to keep things in place, so it’s not like it did irreparable damage to the 75 year old windows.

 

The last step was the weather stripping to fill the gap between the panes. It didn’t look like the provided stuff was going to work (it was too thin for our old windows) until Todd decided to turn it sideways and it filled the gap just right.

After a few nights with these bad boys I can say that they are a bit noisier than anticipated, but not so much that it keeps us awake. The steady noise from the window units seems to be drowning out the outside noises that sometimes do startle me when I’m trying to go to sleep, so maybe the sounds are a benefit? And it was so nice to be able to put the blanket back on the bed and sleep with the weight of it on me–I’ve been sleeping so much better between that and the temperature! And with both units running there is a little mix on the landing between the rooms, so we might actually avoid a $600 utility bill this summer, which would be fabulous!

We did one other thing this weekend that has made daily life so much better.

Mom decided to swap out her kitchen cart/island for another model and offered us her old one. Jason drove it up on Sunday so I took the opportunity to deep clean the kitchen, clear off a lot of the counter clutter*, and even take down the old blinds and put up the sheers I’d purchased way too many months ago. All they needed was hemming and a pocket added to the bottom and they were ready to go!

With the smaller island in place (before it was my old IKEA table, which is now in the Abyss as another work surface) it gives us more room to maneuver. The two drawers in the unit give us much-needed storage (no more dishtowels in a basket on the counter!), the shelves get things off the floor and provide places for some of the aforementioned counter clutter to go, and the counter-height top makes it a much more functional work space.

Meanwhile, the sheers let in so much light in the afternoons that it completely changes the vibe of the room. I cooked dinner, Tuesday night, without even needing to turn on the overhead light. And it feels so airy in there, I love it. We also brought one of the oscillating fans down from upstairs (since it’s no longer needed), and having it blow across the work area in front of the stove made preparing dinner this week so much more pleasant. The room has a single floor register (under the baker’s rack with a diverter) and it just doesn’t put out enough air to cool the room while the stove and/or oven are going.

All in all, the Gingerbread Dollhouse is a much more pleasant living environment after a couple of days effort. I already loved it, now I just love living in it a bit more!

*As I was saying to friends earlier this week, kitchen counters with nothing on them feel like a house without books, to me: empty and unloved. My counters will always have appliances and other often-used items on them, but I consider them “clear” if there’s only stuff single-deep and enough space in front of the items to fit at least a cutting board for work space.