and then pretty simple you just lift... I locked it. hey guys! what's up it's Kelly
again and welcome back to my channel! for today's video I am finally getting
around to answering one of the most commonly asked questions I got on my
apartment tour video which is what are American windows like and why do we not
open them? but first I want to roll some footage to show you what German Windows
look like because Americans really are fascinated by this style of window.
by turning the handle to the horizontal position you can open up the entire
window just like it's a door. by turning the handle completely up you can pull
the window back to a tilted position and a lot of Germans will keep their windows
open like this just to maintain a constant flow of air throughout the
entire day. and then by turning the handle down you lock it closed and
that's the magical German window. Americans on the other hand have several
different styles of Windows but hands-down the most popular style of
window that you'll see all throughout the United States is the kind that I
have right behind me and I'll show you guys how to use it. so this particular
apartment building have these guards that are on the windows and that's to
prevent a child from being able to lift the window above a certain point I think
they would only be able to lift it up to here. and I'm sure that it really cuts
down on any liability issues. I have never seen something like this before. it
was very new to me. I actually had to ask the maintenance guy when I did a
walkthrough of this apartment what these were and I wasn't sure if I was supposed
to be able to remove them or not and he said that as long as you don't have
any kids in the apartment, you're more than welcome to take them
down and it's just like for liability. okay so on the halfway point
so these are two individual panes of glass here you'll have locks and so you
can just flip them to lock the window or to unlock the window and then pretty
simple you just lift the window up. it's pretty noisy out there because we live
on like a really busy street in DC so you can tell how much noise these
windows block. yeah you just lift him up and then there's like a screen back here,
if you guys can see that and it prevents any bugs from being able to come into
the apartment I never saw any screens in Germany. I think that I've read that they
have like fabric screens that you can buy and adhere to the window frame
yourself and then maybe there are some you know manufactured screens that will
be installed for you but it just didn't really seem as common and I think
because a lot of Germans like to be able to actually look out their window so
that would involve them being able to you know breach the point...the plane that
is blocked here. I am not able to stick my head out the window and look down the
street whereas in Germany I was always able to do that. so anyway, the other way
you can open the window is to pull down these actually don't do that but you can
usually pull the top pane down if you want the top of the window open instead.
Germans open their windows every day to stosslueften to mean that they'll
open their windows for about 10 minutes in order to create some airflow
throughout their home probably because they love the fresh air I mean who
doesn't love nice cool fresh air? but more importantly to prevent the growth
of mold. we don't really have this cultural norm of opening up our windows
for a few different reasons so for one we just don't really have as many issues
with mold Germans do as I'm sure many of you know
our apartment's and our houses are built with walls primarily made from wood and
drywall and moisture just acts kind of differently on those surfaces compared
to German walls. German homes are made with concrete and with stone and
moisture will just sit on those walls whereas in the US moisture will
actually be absorbed by that wood and so you don't really get any mold. it of
course all depends on where you live in the US but summertime can get really
really hot especially in the south and you would never ever want to open up
your window into you're nice like air-conditioned home and let in all of
that hot muggy air it would you would never do it. it would... no! I can literally
like hear my dad yelling at me right now when I was a kid and I would like leave
the front door open and he would be like we're not paying to air-conditioned the
neighborhood because you know you would just like be trying to create this nice
little climate zone inside your home that's nice and cool and refreshing and
outside it's like deathly hot. another thing to know is that it's pretty much
impossible for us to clean our windows unless you have a house and of course
like the ground-level windows you're gonna be able to clean and if you have a
ladder you'll be able to reach your second-floor windows and so on but in a
place like this where I live on the fourth floor of an apartment building
I'm kind of just stuck with waiting for the apartment building to decide to
contract a company to clean our windows because I can't do it myself
whereas Germans are able to completely open their windows and can very easily
take a rag and clean the inside and the outside of their windows. since moving
back to the US from Germany I will say that I definitely missed opening up my
windows every day to let in that cool fresh air in and I really missed the
German style of windows. I just think they're awesome they're really
convenient and I wish we have them here in the States
but I will also say that I am pretty content with my air
conditioning especially here in DC where it is really hot and humid in the
summer right now. alright guys that's all I've got for you today! I hope you
enjoyed this video and if you did give it a big thumbs up! special thanks to all
of my Kelly's crew patrons. you guys are amazing! I really appreciate the support.
if you're interested in my patreon campaign check out the link I'll put it
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thanks guys! I'll see you next time.. bye!