Windows should allow a house to "breathe," which helps keep it cool as temperatures begin to climb.
Windows should allow a house to "breathe," which helps keep it cool as temperatures begin to climb.
Interior designer and architect Nancy Peacock has these suggestions: replace solid interior doors with fixed louvered doors; take down solid walls where possible and replace them with sliding louvered partitions, shoji doors, or curtains.
"Maximize operable windows on as many exterior walls as possible," says Peacock. "Design them so they can be left open as much as possible so the house is 'breathing' all day long."
Renovation costs vary quite a bit. But Peacock says a recent job in Salt Lake was done for $70 a square foot (existing space). This included a new kitchen, wet bar and three bathrooms. Part of that job involved taking out an interior wall and replacing it with four shoji doors to span a 10-foot-wide opening. The new custom shoji doors cost $1,400 from Sash & Door Hawaii, says Peacock.
The Salt Lake job involved taking an old single-wall redwood home and putting in double-wall construction. Peacock replaced fixed glass and jalousies with double-paned vinyl windows to also help keep out heat, put in new doors, and insulated the ceilings. Winds come down from the mountains, blow through the living and kitchen areas, and take heat out of the home.