My Green New Deal, Part 2

Vintage 1992 handmade bathroom curtains - - still in use.

Let
the light shine!
It's daylight savings time.
And maybe, just maybe, the snow 
will melt by April and the
morning temperature
will be above
zero.

Bathroom blinds with a view.

In this
Green New Deal, Part 2,
I get real about our energy conservation
at home. And since we're talking
about light, I thought I'd
explore windows.
Fun, right?

Cheap shade in the kid's bathroom.

We have lots
of them - 67 in fact -
that are essential sources of
light and stunning ways to frame
views of our garden and Vermont. But
in terms of energy, even our 15
year old double-paned 
'new' windows
leak heat.

The 'translucent' kitchen shimmering shade.

Over the years,
we have slowly added
insulated and other shades to
help keep the house warm in winter
and cool in summer. Some are even color
coordinated, while others are thin,
cheap roll-ups. We even 
have plastic in the
​livingroom...

High tech insulating shades with custom color to match the room.

Clearly, we
have a hodge-podge.
Of course, my favorites are the
​ones I made when first married in 1992 and
the re-used ones from my grandmother's house that
I found in her attic when she died and then
hung in our living room a decade
ago - - just to try
​the colors...

Gram's old curtains, hung with thumb tacks and a ribbon.

This week
I've been thinking
about  the idea of 'window
dressing,' of giving a superficial, but
misleading impression. Most of the 1930's New
Deal murals I studied in college (see last week's blog
​post, My Green New Deal, Part 1) were colorful
celebrations of the American Dream,
a dream that for millions of
people at that time
was a broken
​promise. 

These stayed down till 10am when the outside temperature finally reached 15 degrees.

Sometimes, 
I feel surrounded by 
broken promises - - The dream
of a house, but no one tells you how much
money it takes to maintain it; The dream of filling the
house with things you need and love, but no advertisement
reveals the true cost and impact of those objects.
So now we have ten years to adapt to
the realities caused by our
​own behavior...

High tech insulating shades that keep things warm in winter and cool in summer.

Ok. That is way
too heavy and way too
guilt-ridden for my tastes. So
let's go back to light, color, texture
and the glorious convergence of creativity
and climate action. I love this time of year. It's still
cold and inside projects still beckon, like
making the curtains in my studio
warmer by sewing old linen
napkins onto them... 

Plastic on a window or cool light, texture and tone?

So I'm
excited about 
our family's Green New
Deal.  We have a decade to make
the rest of our 67 windows as energy efficient
as they can be.  To achieve that goal, we will take stock
of what needs to be done, prioritize and make a
plan.  For now, though, I will continue to
appreciate this crazy mix of window
'dressings' that continue to
keep us warm and I will
keep noticing the
afternoon
play of
​light.

Ikea curtains in my studio - ready for adaptation.

Explore Energy at Home Playbook