Finally New Windows

Forty-five years ago, as the school year began with the grand-opening of of the Ohel Shiloh Elementary School, we moved to Shiloh. Our first home was a prefabricated cement structure in a new rather isolated neighborhood, on a mountain overlooking ancient Shiloh and a lower hill where the more veteran Shiloh residents were just about to build their first permanent homes.

We first lived in the center/western side of the neighborhood, but when the time came to choose where/what would be our permanent home, I fell in love with an empty lot on the eastern side. I dreamt of living in a custom-designed well insulated home with passive solar heating. Seeing the earliest rays of the sun would heat our home for the day. We needed large windows, and to keep the temperature comfortable we had to get double frames, wooden on the inside and aluminum on the outside. We'd have the best of available in Israel in the early-mid 1980s. Our contractor and architect did their best to accommodate. In those days there weren't double/dual panes, at least not here.

In the summer, we'd open the windows to let in the cooler air. The really hot summer sun came later in the day reaching the sides of the house with smaller windows... and also the roof. The biggest and only real problem with those windows was that the two window contractors were fully in touch. The shapes matched will enough to open, but the two frames weren't hermetically sealed, so all sorts of strange things happened in the space between them. And "good news/bad news" properly cleaning the glass was impossible. I took it as a "gift," since that meant that one chore could be ignored.

But after forty 40 years opening and closing got harder, and the screens had aged worse than me. A few years earlier we had replaced the deteriorating wooden door to our merpeset/terrace with a high quality one from HiTech Windows, and that simple door got me thinking. It added to the level of insulation... maybe the time had come... to also change the three livingroom windows. 

I bit the bullet early summer and entered their enormous factory in Shaar Binyamin to discuss it with Chaim Briskin, the owner. He sent one of the workers to my house to measure the window --to the millimeter-- and explain what window design they'd recommend. I agreed and ordered. They promised that they'd install the new ones efficiently, not leaving us with empty frames overnight. 

Late last week the news windows and the skilled crew arrived, davka, earlier than I had expected. They quickly took out the three, no six, window frames to be exact, cleaned up the mess and asked me if I wanted the new frames further in or out. I requested as far out as possible to give me a nice deep windowsill. 

They worked quickly and pleasantly. Just after noontime the job was done. I love the new windows, inside and out. Yes, it's all so bright, with clean glass and "invisible" screens. The wire is so fine that you have to look closely to see it. 

The reflection is slightly unclear because of the double glazing. Yes, instead of two totally separate frames, now the glass is double with a bit of air in-between.

To be very honest, for the longest time I wondered if we should invest in something for the house, since we're not young and have a very limited monthly "income." On one hand, I still hope that when the house has to be sold, these gorgeous windows will add to the value of the house, but I've been told that nowadays when people buy homes, they replace EVERYTHING no matter how new and useful it is.

You're probably curious about if I think I made a mistake. I didn't. I'm not looking forward to adding window-washing to my chore list, but I'm glad I finally got these new wonderful windows.

Astounding Growth, Shiloh's Elementary Schools

September 1, 2019, first day of school

Thirty-eight years ago, September 1, 1981, the Shiloh Elementary School, Ohel Shiloh, opened its doors, yes doors since each class was in a separate small building, for the first time. There were eighteen students in three classes, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades.

In 1981, Shiloh was a small, rather isolated community which was trying to grow and expand. It had been decided that in order to attract more families, make life easier, more attractive and provide employment opportunities, they would open a school.

A local school was one of the factors that helped us decide to move to Shiloh, even though our eldest daughter would have to travel to Ofra. There weren't enough "older children" to have more than three classes. For the first school year, the classes were in new prefabricated homes that Arik Sharon, as Minister of Housing, had brought to Shiloh. Even though the summer of 1981 brought a record-breaking number of new families to Shiloh, most of the houses were empty. It was good to have the school using three of them.

The following year, the school moved down to the neighborhood near the Tel Shiloh, and more prefabricated buildings were brought in for the growing school. A few years later a proper school building was built in the "Middle" of Shiloh, between Tel Shiloh and our neighborhood over a mile up the hill. Preschools and the Infant Day Care Center were also built in the area. More buildings had to be added to the elementary school, as it reached eight grades plus separate classes for boys and girls. As the school continued to grow, especially since students came from nearby Eli, Maale Levona, Shevut Rachel, Shiloh Valley hilltop communities, Southern Shomron and  Jordan Valley, two separate schools were set up, one for the boys and one for the girls.

My youngest child graduated 8th grade over twenty years ago when the school was still relatively small and hadn't yet been divided. I've had little reason to enter it, more accurately the schools, besides Election Day, for many years. And the voting booths/stations are set up in the building cloest to the entrance to the schools' campus. Since there's now a maze of buildings, I can't even point out the original one, where I had been the girls gym teacher for many years. Davka, this week my I accompanied a friend in one of the buildings in the middle of the campus. She had to bring something to one of her children. If I hadn't been with her, I'd still be trying to find my way out.

Here are a few pictures of Ohel Shiloh Elementary Schools circa 2019, 5779-80 on the Jewish Calendar.