I'm considering installing some ceiling fans (at the very least I want to have overhead lights instead of floor lamps) in the bedrooms so perhaps once thats done I'll lay down some insulation.

Of course the irony is that anything that involves working in the attic I'm not going to be particularly motivated to do until summer's over.

David put film on The Boy's window. It really helped. He also put in heavier blinds.

Ceiling fans are a great idea. They have wireless controls now, so that makes the wiring much easier, you can mount the remote to the wall, or leave it on the table.

Definitely go remote control....that way you don't have to worry about going down the wall to wire a switch or two. That turned a relatively easy ceiling fan mount into a HUGE project for me.

Curious....you said you had looked into replacing a window. What does that cost? I have several that need to be replaced but I have no idea the cost involved.

It really depends on the application. If it was a retrofit window, it's relatively inexpensive ($200-$500 per window, depending on size, etc) if you do it yourself. In GD's case, because of HOA rules, they will probably need to take out the old frame, put in the new window, and restucco (I'm guessing), which will increase the cost because of labor.

Yup. I believe the sliding glass door was nearly $2,000.

We put a 3M tinted coating on our windows years back and it made an amazing difference. It was quite economical.

I don't know if you are allowed to do this, but we replaced a sliding glass door with French Doors for under 1K. Not that you are looking to do that anyway.

I've been following this thread with heightened interest, because we turned our new central air unit on for the first time last week, and even at full blast running for 24 hours straight, the best it did was make the house "not hot". We wound up shutting it off, because the crosswinds at night make the place so comfortable, we didn't think it was necessary for the few hours during the day when the sun is at its worst.

What we decided, and this thread seems to be bearing out, is that we need UV protection.

This Friday, 6 new Pella windows will be delivered to the house. We were planning on a retrofit, but because the frames are so old and partially rotted, we went for "nail-in", which will increase the installation cost.

We're getting three double casements, two single casements, and one single but large casement. The grand total before installation is around $3500. We estimate that the final all-in cost including installation will be about double that.

These 6 windows are less than a quarter of the windows in the house, so on our budget, this job will take a few years. Should the heat this summer be too much to take, I'm going to seriously consider some of the options that have been suggested here for the remaining windows.

Was the a/c blowing cold? It sounds like something is wrong, either the a/c isn't working properly, or the unit is undersized. It shouldn't take that long to bring the temp down.