Living in the Central Coast, is such a wonderful place to live, what a great blessing we have been given. We can't think of too many draw backs, compared to other places in the world. So, when we built our own home, we wanted to take advantage of California weather, therefore, we designed the home with many windows and sliding doors to let the light and flesh air in. We don't care much for air conditioning, and we certainly do not like dark areas in the home.

Having good weather most of the year has afforded us the opportunity to enjoy the outside of the home. And because we enjoy being outside, we built several decks attached to our home where we could have multiple place on the exterior to enjoy throughout the day.

You might say to yourself, what a great idea, or what a good design, and you would be correct in making that assumption as we did. There are only a couple problems with the whole concept.

The weather is great for vineyards, and I am told, by one who knows, the CEO of Constellation Brands, Inc. that the red grapes of the Central Coast area are the best in the world. Now I don't know about that, but, I do know that the grapes like the climate, the warm days and cool nights.

Having lived many places through out the good old USA, I couldn't agree more with the grapes. As I mention earlier, it's a wonder place to live. But, we built those decks out of that plastic material (Trex) so we could have the benefits of no termites or deterioration of wood, but, I have to tell you that during those hot summer days, that plastic get's so hot, you can't even set on it with a pair of jeans without burning your bottom. Walking on those decks with bare feet is absolutely out of the question.

With hot days, and some pretty cool evenings, that cut down on the amount of time we could enjoy the outdoors, for reading, cooking, or just plain old relaxing. Bummer, there goes our great home design concept out the window on to the lawn.

But wait! I had an idea, I remembered when I lived close to the Cape, which is in Massachusetts, I purchased a sunroom for all the reason I mentioned above. We are builders right, so let's put sunrooms on those desks, and presto, we now can be warm at night, and cool during the days. At night close all the doors and screens, and during the day, open them all up. What a great idea, problem solved, and now I can brag again what a great home design and home we built, and guess what else, no pesky flies or bugs.

Posted by Mark S. Bills Friday April 18, 2008 10:20pm