Kelly's Healthy Home

I’m so excited that this summer we were able to have new windows and doors installed! We live in a 117 year old row home outside Philadelphia and although I love the charm and solid structure, there are so many inefficient things about our home.

Turning your house into a green home can big a step, and it’s one that should be done with a thorough plan in place for how to maximize your investment. In order to not be overwhelmed, take your renovations one step at a time. Figure out your budget, prioritize and start interviewing contractors. Just because you get estimates for work, does’t mean you have to get everything done at once or even right away. Having numbers in mind will help you save and determine the best projects for your needs.

We’ve done some small things to improve efficiency in and outside the home over the  years, but it was time for us to make some big changes. I’ll take you through our thought process and journey.

First, the windows in our home weren’t all functional. Some didn’t stay up, some had broken screens so I hated to open them and they definitely weren’t very efficient. This summer I wanted to be able to open, enjoy the fresh air and not turn on the air condition until we really needed it. So we started with new windows being a goal.

Initially we thought just a few rooms that had the worst windows, but honestly we don’t have a ton of windows so doing all at once made sense to us. Below is a photo of my office window (soon to be new nursery!). I never opened this window because we always had a wasp nest up top and it wouldn’t stay open without a block.

Now I can open it up, turn on my ceiling fan on a hot days and feel the cool air circulating!

One of the biggest things we needed to change was our door to the back deck. This small room is where we keep our dogs when we leave so we wanted to make sure the windows and door had UV protection and low-e insulating to keep the room as cool as possible in the summer and warm in the winter. The old door (pictured to the left) wasn’t very insulated nor functional. We wanted to have a sliding glass door with screen to keep open in nice weather and easily walk onto the deck.

We had Pella Advanced Low-E sliding glass doors installed and honestly I’ve seen a drastic change in the temperature in the room. Looking forward to seeing how warm it stays for the pups this fall and winter!

We also had a new front and back door installed since both were due for an upgrade. I wish I had a photo of the old front door and the big gap between the floor and bottom of the door. This brought in so much cool air in the winter! I’d walk by and feel the breeze. Yes, we probably could have just put bigger weather stripping on, but a solid door with a new frame and transom (old one had a crack) would look so much better. My Realtor side came through with this decision because a nice front door is more appealing and shows that a homeowner cares about their property. Plus it’s more efficient now!

We haven’t painted it yet, but looking forward to making it a fun and welcoming color!

Now the next step is to compare our gas/electric bills from last year. August will be our first full month with everything installed, but it’s been a cooler August than most so I’m not sure it will be a fair comparison just yet. The real test will be this winter!

Also, I want to test my theory that we’ll have less dust. I feel with the inefficiency, it brought in air and debris from the outside. Now with new seals and less gaps, fingers crossed I don’t have to dust as much. 🙂