Our New High Tech Door, Worth The Money

When we renovated our kitchen last summer, we also decided to change the door going to the mirpeset, balcony/terrace.

It was wood with a glass window, and after over thirty years being exposed to the worst of the wind, rain and strong sun, the time had come to replace it. Draughts and rain snuck through, and if I tried to clean the window panes, it was clear that they were very loose.

A few years ago, when I had first been concerned that the lower section was about to separate forever, my son-in-law insisted he could fix/replace that part. That repair didn't solve all the problems, just one. But when the door became so warped that the lock mechanism was misaligned, and keys broke, I lost all patience with it.

The time had arrived to get a new door, something that would upgrade our home. My daughter highly recommended in internal blind, inside the double panes of special insulating glass. Considering how much we were spending on the kitchen, I didn't think it was wise to go "cheap" on the door.

For years I'd been drooling over a door of new, modern materials, neither wood nor aluminum. I wanted top notch insulation. It has always been important to me. I had planned and built the house according to the principles of passive solar heating, and it is as well insulated as was possible to build at that time.

Basically, we had a choice between ordering from an American company via a friend of ours, who is their agent here, or buying from a more local company headquartered in nearby Sha'ar Binyamin. And we know the owners of that company, also. The deciding point was that the American company didn't have a possibility for internal blinds. So, I called Chaim Briskin of Hi-Tech Windows in Sha'ar Binyamin, 02-656-5575, email info@pvcwindows.co.il.

I chose what I wanted when visiting their showroom factory, and then later on, they came to my house to measure and take a look at the doorway. Not only did we get a door with a large glass window that has the inner blinds, but we also ordered a simple screen door. By having a screen door, we figured that we can save money in the summer, especially in the evenings, by being able to keep the door open and the screen closed. That way we wouldn't need to use the airconditioner for cooling all that much.


Since the door didn't arrive until the weather had cooled, we can't say how much it will help in the summer. But we're overjoyed at how the door is increasing our winter quality of life. No longer are we suffering from the cold draughts that had plagued our dining area.

It's also a great savings in heating costs. The heater goes off frequently, since heat isn't being lost. During the previous winter, the heater never seemed to go off.

When we built the house, custom designed and built, we ordered double windows. The inner window frames are wood, and the outer ones are aluminum. The planning was rather primitive by today's standards, but despite the numerous imperfections cold stays out.

I firmly believe that it's worth investing in the best possible insulated doors and windows, and today you can get top notch doors and windows from Hi-Tech Windows. I recommend them for all of your window and door needs. You'll save on heating and cooling, especially if you don't skimp on screens. They work all over the country, not just around here.

Finally Feeling Like Summer at The Pool

This year our local Shiloh Swimming Pool opened relatively early on the "goyishe calendar," June 1, 2018, and the water was cold that first full week.

Only this morning did I really enjoy every minute in the water. OK, it was a bit chilly when I first entered, but I quickly got used to the water. Or did the water really heat up? It was probably a combination of the two.

Whatever... I have no complaints, except for the fact that we were all sent out too early for our taste. We would have been much happier if the pool had longer hours for us "women," females 18+.

OK, I guess I could have come a bit earlier, but then the water would have been a bit colder. The pool is on the eastern slope of the neighborhood, and every minute the sun heats the water a bit more. Last week it was bitter cold...

Happy Summer, Everyone

Baile Rochel Going "Modern"

That's in centigrade

Toasting the toasty room, even before
the pictures were rehung. 

OK, maybe for some of you, this is very 20th century deja vu, but here we are in the middle of the second decade of the 21st century and this family, OK more accurately an alte kakker couple, just got its very first modern "airconditioner," which unlike the ones of the mid-20th century heats as well as cools.

When we planned and built this house over thirty years ago, we tried to be as modern and clever as possible. I had read of "passive solar heating" and hoped that our large eastern and southern windows, plus specially constructed double walls, would make expensive heating almost unnecessary. The idea was that the free solar-from the sun- heat would enter the house and stay on sunny days. Even though our winters are the only season it rains, and even snows some years, most winter days are sunny. Of course, clever me ignored the simple reality that the summer sun would bake us...

Somehow we did survive those early winters by using a simple kerosene heater in the winter, a few small blow-heaters and the heat a large family plus guests add to a house. In the summer, we'd leave the windows open and pretend that it wasn't all that hot. But as these magic heat/cool airconditioners became more and more common, our bodies just wouldn't cooperate with the "con." Having a fan blowing the hot air in the summer just made the house like a giant convection oven. And in the winter I went around in half my sweater wardrobe and multiple socks each day.

Finally, after muttering for years that "we must get an airconditioner," I assigned the job of choosing a technician to my savvy son-in-law. We ended up hiring a young man who had been a student of mine. I wasn't all that happy about having a former student see the mess my bedroom is, but I was tired of needing to sleep with a hot water bottle, dressed heavy pajamas, socks and gloves most winter nights. And one of the reasons why our room stays a mess is that it is too cold to enter to clean. It was more like a giant walk-in freezer, and it's impossible to straighten up wearing heavy thermal gloves made for arctic winters.

For years I'd been saying that I only function a few weeks a year, spring and fall, since it's generally either too hot or too cold.

Well, my student was happy for the business and sent a couple of young neighbors, his cheerful technicians, to do the job. I had tutored one of them a number of years ago, too.


My husband was home that day and had the chore of clearing out things from our room and the living room near where the airconditioners would be. I still have lots of things to put back in place. Though I'm mulling over the idea of actually getting rid of many... Yes, I know that the trick to a clean and orderly house is to "purge" or "declutter" unneeded THINGS. The big problem is the definition of "unneeded."

The mess and the big decision of what can really be thrown out must wait until after Shabbat...

And of course you want to know how much better we feel now that there are airconditioners here in the house to keep us warm. I think for that answer, we'll have to wait until next winter, since Israel is now experiencing an "early spring." That's no surprise, since Ol' Murphy rules...

And Now for The First Time in Months...

The fan is silent. I turned it off right after Simchat Torah ended. It's suddenly chilly outside. We don't have an airconditioner, and fans take ages to cool the room, the large open-plan L shaped livingroom-diningroom kitchen. So, I turned it on rather early in the summer and haven't turned it off, not even when we've gone away for Shabbat.

Our house was planned and built to keep in the heat during the winter, so it can get awfully hot in the summer. I keep the shades down and windows, which face east, as open as I can considering the badly planned "double windows" we have.

We didn't even have the fan and shades in the early years we were in the house, when the kids were little and lived at home. I don't know how we survived, but in those days nobody had airconditioning, so I guess we were used to the heat.

I guess we really ought to get airconditioning, which also will provide a more efficient way to heat in the winter. Any recommendations?

Pull Down The Shades!

Wasn't it just a few short weeks ago that I was kvetching about the cold? Our house was planned to take advantage of the free sun heating system, passive solar heating. The disadvantage is that the morning sun, the very early morning sun goes straight into the livingroom/diningroom and heats the house every summer morning.

So, I've finally pulled down the shades.