Living the Hard Life: Frugal Choices

The Amazing cellular Shades

In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger, but Zoe’s version was, “What doesn’t kill you, might not make you stronger, but definitely wiser. Growing up in a North Charleston inner city, had challenges that urban kids hadn’t the slightest clue about, hands down. Or rather ‘hands up’ in her case, because of all the times she was mistaken for someone else by the cops. It seemed like all African Americans looked the same to them. No, life was definitely not a bed of roses. She had made some mistakes along the way, but there was nothing she didn’t eventually learn to handle. Whatever said and done, growing up the hard way taught her lessons she knew she wouldn’t have discovered elsewhere.
A blessing in disguise was her sister’s fourteen-year-old daughter who, when she arrived did seem like a tiresome burden, but eventually straightened her life out. Her sister and her husband died in a car accident, God rest their souls, leaving her this little bundle of joy she had no clue what to do with. She still remembered the day she held Aria in the hospital about fourteen years ago, two parents gleaming with joy in front of her, they seemed like the happiest people in the world, and she was happy to play Godmother to the child. Although she knew of the responsibilities of the Godparent in the event something happens to the parents, it still seemed all too sudden for her. Nevertheless, the child grew on her, and they found pleasure in each other’s company.
Living in the inner city was a hard life, she tried very hard to not only make ends meet but also give Aria all the things she didn’t have the pleasure of having growing up. Although life was still a challenge, she was, thankfully a hard worker and managed to maintain a slow but steady progress, especially career-wise. Living in the inner city presented several cons that city people wouldn’t be privy to, so privacy was of utmost importance. Aria was to appear for her crucial ninth grade exams at the end of her academic year, and the distractions of the street had to be eliminated. Although it seemed like an expensive investment that she had been putting off for a while, it was about time, and with her recent hike in salary, she could finally afford it.
She had a variety of economic choices that fitted her budget from the different categories of window treatments. She narrowed in on shades and blinds because shutters were obviously out of her monetary league, they were very expensive. In North Charleston, where the weather is not consistent throughout the year, she needed something pretty versatile. During her research, she kept privacy and energy efficient requirements in mind. When it came to privacy, both shades and blinds had their advantages. Blinds allowed one to close the slats when privacy was required giving you control of the light that entered the room as well. Shades, on the other hand, had the option of sun filtering fabrics that allowed light in and a muted view of the outside. Blinds, especially real wood blinds, were not recommended for moist areas like the kitchen or bathrooms, so shades would have to do for those areas. The other issue to be considered was maintenance, with her long hours and busy schedule; she didn’t have time to waste on cleaning window treatments of all things! Thankfully the window treatments came with an anti-static feature that repelled dust. Plus, the shades had the option of spot cleaning with a fabric solution. With cellular shades, it was as easy as giving them a once over with your vacuum on low suction.

Energy Efficient Window Shades

When it came to energy efficiency, blinds did a good job of reducing heat during the summer as it blocked out a good amount of heat out when closed and when the slats are strategically angled, blinds could diffuse light rays allowing a pleasant amount of light in. But for the winter, blinds seemed like a bad option as they couldn’t control heat loss due to the openings between the slats unless they were kept constantly closed. Shades on the other hand, would lock in the heat while allowing light in. For a place like North Charleston where the summers are as warm as 30 degrees and the winters are as cold as five degrees Celsius, she needed something that could nail both kinds of weather. She then stumbled upon Graber cellular shades that had a unique honeycomb design that concealed air pockets that trapped heat within the shades. This way, the house is kept cool during summer and warm during winter taking an enormous load off the air conditioning system, reducing the electricity bill considerably. So even though cellular shades weren’t the cheapest option, its long-term benefits like energy consumption and utility made up for the expense. Plus, since she ordered the shades online (they seemed to be frequent offers), and the installation was trouble-free, with step by step instructions that made them a breeze to set them up herself.
For ultimate privacy solutions, Sun up Sun down cellular shades seemed to take the cake. They not only had sun filtering and room darkening fabrics but had the option of lowering or raising either one of them allowing the maximum privacy and not to mention light control. This way the room darkening shades could be pulled down so that it occupied the bottom half of the window, blocking the view of nosy neighbours and obscuring the many wrongs that go on about the streets while at the same time allowing maximum light in through the upper section that lets light in eliminating glare and harmful UV rays. All in all, cellular shades seemed like the most economical buy, especially since it catered to such dichotomous weather and for its energy efficiency.