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Blinded by the light

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I’ve often thought of having some blinds installed in our house. I think I would probably have them in our south facing rooms since the sun is so very bright from early morning until at least noon. It’s absolutely blinding at times. There’s nothing like trying to cook something in the kitchen and not being able to see what you’re doing because it’s so bright.

I guess I shouldn’t complain. We only have a couple of east facing windows, no west facing windows, and the rest face North which makes at least half our house fairly dark.

If I had blinds installed in the kitchen at least I’d be able to partially shut them when the sun was too bright, and open them up fully again when the sun wasn’t shining directly in through that window.

I’ve actually been thinking of renovating the kitchen. That can’t happen until we finish the living room/ dining room (this weekend I hope) of course. I might even hold off until we’ve finished renovating the basement as well. I think getting more space in this house that we can use is more important than having the kitchen of my dreams. However, the kitchen is on the list of reno’s that we plan to do.

I’d like to give the kitchen a Mediterranean feel. It’s fairly plain right now, so it wouldn’t matter if I picked blinds that would suit the future kitchen because I’m sure they would fit in just fine with the current design and colors of our present kitchen.

I’ve always liked bamboo and wooden blinds as opposed to metallic, fabric or plastic blinds. I guess I’d better start looking for blinds soon since the sun is getting stronger and my kitchen is getting brighter!






Growing seedlings in the back porch

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We have an unheated enclosed porch at the back of our house and I use this area to start seeds in March and early April. Well, to be completely honest, some seeds get started indoors in late February or early March and then as the weather begins to warm by the end of March and early April I often end up with most of my seedlings in the back porch area where I have one of those small three shelved plastic covered green houses.

The room is on the South side of the house and it gets a lot of sunlight through the windows and uhm corrugated green plastic ceiling (how classy!) from early morning to mid-afternoon or so. In the summer we can’t go in this room unless the window is open as it just gets too hot. In the winter the back porch is reasonably comfortable in the day time even in January or February. So This is a good place to grow plants for the garden.

I am thinking of getting some blinds for the windows in the back porch because I think they might help deflect a little bit of the sunlight and consequently the heat that builds up in the room. of course, there’s that corrugated green plastic roof that covers the back porch. It lets a lot of light in as well. Oh and the cold of winter, and heat of summer.

The back porch has wood paneling- dark wood paneling and I’ve been thinking of white washing the wood so the room will be bright. I wouldn’t actually use white on the walls though but a very pale green/white wash. So I’m trying to decide if I should get natural wood or bamboo blinds or the regular metallic kind. I guess I have a few months to think about this because I’m certainly not going to be doing anything else out there this year.

Where do you grow your seedlings? Do you start them indoors under grow lights?

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