Skip to main content

Is afternoon sun really that bad?

This has been a wonderful week, and not just because term 3 has started (which is great, btw!); after all that rain, I'm welcoming the sun back into our lives!

One of our duvets sunbathing, cover and all


We didn't know that three of our four bedrooms would get the afternoon sun (or 西照 in housing speak) when we bought this house. When we got the keys and saw the sun, we had the windows all tinted. Blackout curtains definitely but those were more for the kids' nap time as they were all still taking afternoon naps at that time.

When we moved in, we realised that it got really hot after 3 pm as the sunlight goes about 1 metre into the bedrooms. 

Solution? Aircon. But this doesn't affect our electricity bills:
  • The kids napped with aircon with or without afternoon sun.
  • Now that the kids are not napping, we are also not in the bedrooms in the afternoon. And I'm at home the whole day most days!
  • Until WFH happened as The Hub converted a bedroom to his office. But even if there is no afternoon sun, he will need aircon for WFH.
So afternoon sun doesn't affect us negatively. In fact, I love the afternoon sun! It's usually windy so laundry can dry even without the sun. But it's really nice to smell the sun in the laundry, you know? The kids' school shoes get a good wash during the major school holidays, and nothing dries them better than the good old sun. 

My fave is to sun pillows and duvets - these are difficult to wash but why wash when the sun is free to use?

Just like today. I usually sun pillows and duvets when I wash the bedsheets. But since it's so hot and sunny today, let's smell some sun when we sleep tonight :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Refreshing my ironing board

There were many things to replenish when our helper left. Took two trips to Ikea in one week - first to Alexander for the big stuff as I'm familiar with the place and it's easy to just pop my boxes from the trolley to the taxi; second to Jurong for the small stuff not available at Alexander. In between the two trips, I bought an ironing board cover from NTUC. I knew that I would have to get a new iron because helper scratched burnt fibres off the ceramic soleplate with a knife!! That was some time ago but I didn't bother changing it since it was still working and I knew I wouldn't keep her long. But I didn't realise until after my second trip to Ikea that I had to get a new ironing board too!  The army towel acted as a dust cover but also prevented me from seeing the truth about the board whenever I went into the yard Some weird stained on the iron rest The cover under the polka dot cover was disintegrating I didn't remember why I had two ironing board covers, h

Surviving COVID-19 home recovery

I came down with COVID-19 :( As The Hub was out of town, I was the only adult at home. Luckily, the kids are old enough to do some things independently and even help me during my home recovery. Two KPIs were met: (1) The kids stay alive; and (2) they did not catch COVID from me.  Here are some tips to help others in similar shoes, i.e. single parents of (semi-)independent school-going children and with mild symptoms on home recovery. *** *** *** Put up safety barriers To be honest, if you get COVID from the kids, most likely you are all going down coz they would be infectious before showing symptoms. But if you're the first and you know about your exposure to COVID early like me, there is a very good chance that your family won't get it from you if you do this first step right. Even if you don't know about any exposure, it's best to barrier up at the first symptom and hope for the best! Mask up: While a surgical mask would do well for those who can stay put in one room