There’s this quaint but somewhat useful Vietnamese wedding tradition where wedding guests gift the bride and groom red packets filled with money for luck. Cheap Geek and I cashed in on this tradition; instead of setting up a wedding registry, we asked our friends and family to gift us money so that we could get some double glazing for the house.

While double glazing has good R values, there are cheaper ways to improve the passive design/thermal efficiency of a house: door and window seals, roof insulation, pelmets and heavy drapes. With the exception of heavy drapes, none of these things are good at keeping sound out unfortunately, and because we live on a main road, sound is a big issue. Cheap Geek and I are sick of being woken up by morning traffic, of having the trams compete with our favourite TV shows, and I’m pretty sure my hearing’s being damaged by the constant noise. So now that the wedding is over and we’ve kept to the wedding budget, we’re putting in some double glazing. 😀 Continue reading →