Why Shrewsbury
The Sun Problem Behind Most Shrewsbury Houses
The subdivisions that went up north of Route 9 and along Grafton Street over the last thirty years share a floor plan idea: kitchen and family room across the back, a slider in the middle, and a deck or patio beyond it. Those lots run deep, with the tree line a good distance back, and from about three in the afternoon the sun comes straight across that deck and through the slider into the room where everyone is.
An interior shade on the slider blocks the light after the glass is already hot. Our exterior roller shades stop it outside, which is why the same mesh performs several times better mounted on the deck side. The kitchen stays cooler, the air conditioner runs less, and the deck itself becomes somewhere you can sit at four o'clock in July.
The older streets closer to the town center and the houses along Lake Quinsigamond have a different version of the same problem: farmhouse porches with a western exposure, and glare coming off the water. Both get the same shade, sized to the porch opening instead of the deck.
Around here the outdoor season runs Memorial Day to Columbus Day if you do nothing about it. Clients who add exterior shades and a patio heater tell us they are still eating dinner outside in late October.
